£3m deals keep BDL on target for growth

HOTELS group BDL Management is on target to hit its growth plans for the year after securing £3 million of contracts.

The Glasgow-based company has added nine properties to its portfolio, taking its operating roster to 49. Managing director Stewart Campbell said a further ten deals were in the pipeline over the next 18 months.

BDL aims to have 75 hotels under management by the end of 2014 and is closing in on its target of 50 by the end of this year. Campbell and his co-owners expect revenues from management fees to rise to £6m this year, from £5m in 2011.

“We are very close and there are four months of this year left, so I am quite confident we can meet the target,” he said.

The added properties include three Holiday Inn Express hotels, including the 120-room Express at Strathclyde Park. The addition of the Express brands, which are owned by InterContinental Hotels (IHG), makes BDL one of the largest operators of franchised IHG properties in the UK with a 15-strong portfolio.

BDL has taken over the management of two Best Western properties and four independent hotels.

Combined turnover of the BDL portfolio – which includes 19 properties that it owns or has a stake in – is about £145m annually. In addition to the short-term pipeline, there are roughly a further ten deals which the company expects to close in two or three years.

Owned by its seven-strong team of directors, BDL began trading in 1997 with the aim of managing new-build properties. It was forced to overhaul that strategy with the onset of the recession, with many new contracts coming via banks and other lenders hoping to stabilise trading at hotels run by their borrowers.

BDL has raised its headcount to 70 since 2008, a near-threefold increase.