 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Headquarters | Uxbridge,England,UK |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Gavin TaylorCEO Quek Leng Chan Chairman |
| Revenue | £287m (2004) |
| Parent | Clermont Hotel Group |
| Website | www |
Thistle Hotels, a subsidiary of theClermont Hotel Group, is a UK-based hotel company with a portfolio of 8 Central London hotels, one at London Heathrow and one in nearby Bedfordshire,[1] operating in thethree and four star sector.
It was set up byScottish & Newcastle in 1965, to combine its own traditional legacy hotels with purpose built hotels. Mount Charlotte Investments bought thirty four Thistle hotels from S&N, and acquired the Thistle brand name for £645m in November 1989. During the subsequent recession, the debt taken on to fund the transaction became unsustainable, resulting in Mount Charlotte being taken over by Brierley Investments ofNew Zealand for £664m in 1990.
The chain was the main shirt sponsor forLeeds United AFC from 1993 to 1996. In 1997, the company floated on the Stock Exchange, to become Thistle Hotels plc, valued at £620m. In September 1998, it sold 30 provincial hotels to Grace Hotels (owned by theLehman Brothers investment bank) for £62.7m, becoming managed byPeel Hotels. In July 1999, it sold theCharles Dickens Hotel in London to the Ryan Hotel Group for £20m. In June 2002, it initially sold 37 of its hotels to Orb Estates ofJersey for £598m, continuing to manage the properties, but the hotels are eventually sold to Atlantic Hotels for £700m and operated under the Thistle name. In June 2003, the company was bought for £627m by BIL International, a private equity company based inSingapore (but registered inBermuda) owned by theHong Leong Group and the majority shareholder since 1990. Thistle Hotels was delisted from theLondon Stock Exchange. In 2004, it opened its Cumberland Hotel in London[2] after a £95 million renovation, which operated under the Guoman brand. In May 2005, it sold six hotels to theTopland Group under aleaseback deal for £185m. It used to be based inThe Calls inLeeds, then moved toUxbridge.
In 2004, budget hotel companyTravelodge bought two Thistle Hotels inLondon, the Thistle London Islington and the Thistle London Ryan. In 2008, Thistle Hotels announced that it was currently undergoing a re-branding of £100 million to maintain consistency across the group. Thistle Cardiff the Parc reopened in September 2008 after being closed for 17 months due to fire[3] and has been refurbished throughout. The hotel underwent a £15m transformation.
In 2015, the managed part of the estate was sold by its owners CIT Holdings Ltd. glh. was unsuccessful in its bid,[4] meaning the majority of the provincial estate changed management, being run by Accor Hotels.[5]
TheCEO was Tim Scoble until 2012, he was the CEO ofLittle Chef for two years from 2004 to 2006. He was succeeded by Mike De Noma who was CEO from 2012 - 2016, followed by Neil Gallagher from 2016 to 2018 and Alan Morgan from 2018 to 2020. The currentCEO of theClermont Hotel Group is Gavin Taylor.[citation needed]
Clermont Hotel Group, parent company of Thistle, also previously operates three hotels in London under the Guoman brand,Tower Hotel, The Cumberland and theRoyal Horseguards Hotel, which have now rebranded under their own names.
Hotel chains in the United Kingdom | |
|---|---|
| Budget | |
| Mid-market | |
| Upscale / full service |
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| Defunct | |
