Thailand: Italthai Group, the owner of Onyx Hospitality Group, is aiming to modernise its business by franchising its brands overseas.
Onyx operates the Shama and Ozo serviced apartment brands, as well as the Amari, yoo and Mosaic Collection hotel brands.
“We will start franchising our four-star hotel brand Amari and mid-scale Ozo to Australia and China over the next two years as we seek to move into new markets with high growth and large populations,” said Yuthachai Charanachitta, group chief executive of Italthai, the third generation of his family to lead the company. “My investment strategy centres on financial return,” he said. “Why would we make large investments in exchange for low returns?”
He said Italthai will expand its hotel and serviced apartment business overseas with 10 new hotels in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China and Australia to capitalise on high-growth, high-population markets. The company has joined with local partners to operate the hotels and serviced apartments through the hospitality group’s brands.
“Italthai expects to spend about 1 billion baht next year for its hotel and serviced apartments business for the overseas and domestic markets,” Yuthachai said.
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