Hastings hotel group sees pretax profits fall by 26% to £2m

ONE OF the North’s largest hotel groups, the Hastings Group, made a profit of just over £2 million in its 2010 financial year, 26 per cent lower than the previous year.

The family-owned hotel group, which also has an interest in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin, posted pretax profits of £2.05 million for the year ended October 2010, down from £2.79 million the previous year.

Turnover was £30.44 million, down from £32.86 million in 2009.

Founded by William Hastings in 1964, the family-run hotel chain has six hotels in the North, including the Europa hotel in Belfast.

The directors described the position of the group at year-end as “satisfactory”, and said the group would “continue to seek every opportunity to increase profitable turnover”.

A report by consultants ASM Howarth last year found the hotel industry in Northern Ireland was badly hit by the recession, with Belfast suffering up to a 45 per cent drop in profits as a result of the fall in business travellers.

Just under £5.9 million of the company’s turnover came from its stake in the Merrion Hotel.

The company is a 50 per cent joint venture partner in Landmark Investment Limited, the property holding company behind the Merrion.

The Hastings Group made a loss of just over £500,000 from its investment in Landmark, down almost half from the £1 million it lost in 2009.

The Merrion Hotel, which is also controlled by Martin Naughton and Loughlann Quinn, is due to report 2010 results shortly.

The Hastings Group employed an average of 1,032 people during the year, 459 of whom were full-time, down from 1,085 the previous year.

Total staff costs stood at £10.8 million, down from £11.5 million the previous year.

Directors’ emoluments were £985,000.

The group had net assets of £28.6 million, compared to £27.6 million the previous year.