FIH Regent Group (晶華麗晶酒店集團) plans to launch a new overseas franchise chain next year for the Just Sleep (捷絲旅) brand, aiming to introduce the medium-priced hotel brand to other Asian countries through regional agents.
FIH Regent operates three brands — Regent Hotels & Resorts, Silks Place (晶英酒店) and Just Sleep.
The group has accelerated its expansion pace globally over the past five years.
FIH Regent runs five hotels under the Just Sleep brand in Taiwan, but group chairman Steven Pan (潘思亮) has long sought to reach out to other countries.
“The group is to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, while the Just Sleep brand expected to begin its internationalization drive in the meantime,” Pan said yesterday after hosting the grand opening of a Just Sleep hotel in Hualien.
The hotel started trial operations in February with an average room rate of NT$4,000 and occupancy at about 70 percent.
The internationalization of Just Sleep will be carried out through a new franchise model, including cooperation with regional agents, he said.
The group is discussing the expansion with possible partners in Southeast Asia, with the Philippines as a possible location for the first overseas location, he said.
Meanwhile, FIH Regent has announced three new domestic projects, which could raise the number of total rooms in Taiwan under the brand to nearly 1,000 by the end of 2017.
A hotel in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪) is scheduled to commence operations in February, followed by one in Greater Kaohsiung that will open in July, while a hotel being built in cooperation with Pin Yang Development Corp (賓陽建設) in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) could launch in 2017.
The group also has expansion plans for Regent Hotel & Resorts and Silks Place, with the Regent brand targeting the US and European markets and Silks Place the greater China area.
The group aims to boost the sales proportion of the three brands — generally management and consulting income — from the current 20 percent to 50 percent of its consolidated sales by the end of 2020, Pan said.
For the first 10 months of the year, the group posted consolidated sales of NT$5.14 billion (US$165.99 million), an increase of 10.51 percent from a year earlier.
Revenue contributed by the Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店) accounting for about 80 percent of the group’s total, stock exchange data showed.
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