IHCL unveils 5 year strategy to spur growth, strengthen market leadership

Indian Hotels Company Ltd., announced a comprehensive five-year business strategy targeted at improving EBIDTA margins by 800 bps. Under the plan, the company will work towards deepening guest experience, strengthening market leadership and achieving transformative growth leading to greater profitability and market leadership in each of the IHCL relative market segments.

Articulating the plan, Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Hotels Company Limited, outlined a crisp overview of the vision, created with an eye towards maximizing stakeholder value over the next five years. The plan aims to build on the century-old legacy of IHCL and further strengthen its position by operating best in class portfolio of brands in India and select overseas destinations.

“Our greatest opportunities reside at the very heart of our brand – our people, authentic guest experiences and unmatched value. Our strategy is three pronged: Restructure, Reengineer and Reimagine our portfolio to achieve 8% point EBIDTA margin improvement. This will be driven by a deep commitment to service excellence as well as implementation of revenue and profit-driving initiatives. Integral to our strategy of reinforcing the multi-product, multi-segment brandscape is our customer. We shall aim to have a value proposition for each of our customers at different points in their lifecycle. Our service ethos, epitomized in what we call ‘Taj-ness’ will continue to be the soul of our company.” Puneet Chhatwal added.

Key tenets of the plan include unlocking value from efficiencies in scale and simplifying the holding structure for greater profitability. IHCL will be at the forefront of change in the hospitality industry as it goes about re-engineering processes, embracing technology and building people capability to deliver enhanced and personalized customer experiences. The plan will include aligning the company’s brands to dominate high growth segments, implementing an aggressive development pipeline and restructuring assets for balance sheet optimization.

IHCL has the distinct advantage on the Indian sub-continent of having the largest system wide revenue, one of the largest network of hotels, spanning iconic landmark hotels, authentic Palaces and the highest number of leisure hotels. It is the only Indian hospitality group to have marquee hotels in international locations like New York, London, San Francisco, and Dubai amongst others in overseas destinations.