Andras House sees room sales soar in first full year of post Covid trade
Andras House, Northern Ireland’s biggest hotel group, has added £10m in room sales in its latest financial year.
Its accounts for the year ending April 30 2023 show turnover rose to £39.3m and that the cost of sales at the company, which also operates commercial property interests, went up 27% from £14m to £17.8m
Andras House was founded by Lord Rana in 1981 and the business includes Belfast’s Crowne Plaza Hotel and other properties with 1,060 guest rooms in total.
Total turnover rose by 33.7% to £39.3m and pre-tax profits jumped 32%, from £8.8m to £11.6m.
Six of its nine hotels are run under international franchises with ACCOR, IHG and Hilton. They are the Holiday Inn Express Belfast city, Crowne Plaza Belfast, Holiday Inn Belfast city centre, Ibis Belfast Queen’s Quarter, Ibis Belfast city centre and Hampton by Hilton Belfast city centre.
It expanded during the year with the March opening of the Riverside Hotel in Coleraine, which is being renovated into an Ibis in a £0.5m investment. It is also working on a new 83-bedroom hotel in Portrush, to open in 2025.
Following the end of the year, the company bought 13 Malone Park and 2 to 12 Botanic Avenue for £1.8m and £1.7m respectively, the accounts reveal.
Over the year, there was an increase of 120 in employee numbers, including administrative staff and management, rising from 359 to 479 overall.
It was the addition of 120 hotel staff which boosted numbers – rising from 320 to 443 – while the company pay bill went up 26% from £7.6m to £9.6m.
Of its turnover, £37.1m was from hotels and catering, up nearly £10m from £27.4m from the year before. Property rental revenue rose from £1.9m to £2.2m.
And it added £14,000 to its revenue from car parks, going from £22,543 to £36,670. However, in contrast with the previous year’s £768,837, there were no government grants received.
Its commercial properties in the city amount to 170,000 sq ft of properties such as Grade A offices, restaurants, retail and health clubs. The accounts state that the properties were fully let and meant a diversification of income beyond hotel activity.
Andras House also has development sites in Belfast and across NI with planning permission or pending applications for more hotel and office developments.
In a strategic report filed with the accounts, the directors said: “To manage competition, it pays close attention to market research, benchmarking with competition and recruitment of highly professional staff.
“The group’s hospitality market remains highly competitive. The directors are conscious of the need to control costs and maintain the high standards of service achieved going forward in order to remain competitive.”
