African Sun in $10m rebranding exercise

The latest move has so far seen the rebranding of Express by Holiday Inn Beitbridge to Beitbridge Express Hotel while Holiday Inn Mutare was renamed African Sun Amber Mutare.

The ASL group sales and marketing manager, Ms Alana Chinhara, said they were also working on relaunching their Holiday Inn hotels in Harare and Bulawayo.

ASL, which operates 12 hotels in the country, secured a loan facility from Afrexim Bank in 2011 for its ongoing massive project.

“As African Sun group, we have repositioned our Mutare and Beitbridge hotels in line with our growth strategy where the new brands will unlock shareholder value and increase profitability for the operations as per the specific market needs,” she said.

African Sun Amber Hotel is a mid-range city brand targeted at the business traveller and conference delegates. Ms Chinhara said the former Express by Holiday Inn Beitbridge, which was rebranded to Beitbridge Express Hotel, remained a value brand meant for transient guests and conference delegates.

She said the second phase of the process involves product refurbishment, which would start with city hotels including the Holiday Inns and the Crowne Plaza.

The exercise would be completed within the first half of the year.

“In the second phase of this ongoing exercise we intend to introduce a new look Holiday Inn Franchise Hallmarks and signage as well as product refurbishment of the hotels. This process will ensure that we upgrade the hotels as per the Inter-Continental Hotel Group (IHG) franchise standards.

“This will then be followed by the product refurbishments for the resort hotels commencing with the Victoria Falls properties,” she said.

The scope of the product refurbishment covers soft furnishings, new operational equipment, linen, renewal of furniture, painting and changing all carpets.

It also includes essential back of house items such as the critical fire life and safety items.

“We are using this opportunity to launch these brands locally to enhance the credibility and acceptance of these brands allowing the company to market them successfully to markets outside of Zimbabwe,” Ms Chinhara said.

The re-launch follows the successful repositioning of The Elephant Hills Resort to a stand-alone home grown brand in 2005, from the IHG brand.

“The re-launch of the Holiday Inn Harare and Holiday Inn Bulawayo as well as the re-branding of the other two hotels in Beitbridge and Mutare follows the group’s strategy to bring the company back to profitability.

“In line with this strategy, African Sun has executed in the prior financial year, a successful restructuring as well as disposal of bleeding operations,” Ms Chinhara said.