UK Conference and Banqueting

The challenge

To assist a start-up business to further develop its activities.

The group had steadily grown to c700 bedrooms, together with considerable conference and banqueting facilities. The properties had been acquired and refurbished into high quality business hotels.

As a start-up business, early trading had been poor, the hotels had underperformed against all projections. The refurbishment had exceeded budget and this had led to issues and pressure from the lending bank.

Implementations

Our remit on this project was centred on strengthening the financial systems and processes ensuring reporting was overseen and delivered efficiently and on time. Some of the actions taken:

• Introduced a detailed system of financial reporting, to compare actual performance with forecast and budget on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
• Implemented a system of forecasting to project future demand so that departmental managers can use as a tool for staffing requirements.
• Reviewed and standardised products and product pricing throughout the group.
• Undertook a strategic review of all supply contracts to identify cost savings and improvements.
• Reviewed front and back office interfaces.

Achievements

• Improved financial reporting so that management can take corrective action much quicker.
• Refocused the sales and marketing strategy to firstly break even and then achieve profitability.
• Refinanced the bank debt to pay for the overspend on refurbishment
• Assisted the company to achieve a trade sale £42m.