Orchid plans luxury brand, to hit St soon

NEW DELHI: The Orchid Group of Hotels is looking at launching a new luxury hotel brand —O-hotels. The company will launch its first property in Pune. The company is also looking at raising money through an IPO before 2009.

Orchid Group’s CEO Pushpinder Kumar said, “After launching a five-star business hotel brand, heritage brand and service apartments. We are now looking at launching a luxury brand and think there is a huge potential for the segment.” The group which has several investors including Vithal Kamat operates several brands.

Currently, the company has a turnover of Rs 500 crore and plans to raise money through an IPO to expand further. “We expect to touch the Rs 1,000 crore mark by 2010 . Therefore, we plan to list ourselves before 2009,” he added.

The hotel management company is operating 5-star brand-Orchid, 4-star brand-Rhodas, heritage hotels-Garh and service apartments. The Orchid brand is targeted at the metros which includes Bangalore, Jaipur, Hyderbad, Kolkata among others.The two functional properties currently are in Delhi and Mumbai.

Rhodas is being expanded in tier-2 and satellite towns.“We have tied up with a hotel in South Africa and two in China,” added Mr Kumar.