Easy Group. Serial in 2 parts.

 

FOXTROTS

   Fox – sly.  Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning.  Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance.  

 

2007 August 24

    Easy Group. Serial in 2 parts.   …or the battle between orange and ginger.    In the orange corner is Stelios Forgettherest, head of the Easy Group, whose corporate colour group is orange. Stelios is moving into Asia with his Easy Hotels. Well, sort of.    Stelios – who previously ran a cornflakes company (his business card says he is a ‘Serial Entrepreneur’) – has signed with Istithmar Hotels to develop Easy budget hotels in India, Pakistan, Middle East, and North Africa.     He talks of building 38 hotels in five years, which seems to be much slower than possible for a brand at this level. And particularly because Istithmar is actually owned by Dubai World – which means the Dubai government. A background like that should mean faster-than-usual expansion.    Istithmar (an investment group like Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Hotels) likes big talkers. It is also working with Kerzner International, headed by Sol Kerzner with two resort brands – the big and brash Atlantis and the opposite, One & Only (of which, despite that name, there are a few).    In the ginger corner is Raymond Bickson, head of India’s Taj hotel group. Although better known for upper-market hotels, Taj also has a blooming budget brand – Ginger.    Bickson, who like Stelios, has met me, plans to open 15 of these Ginger hotels in India this year, and then a regular 24/year from 2008 – two a month. That compares with about one-every-two-months from the orange people.   The Fox