Independent hotel chain celebrates 5th birthday with profit rise

May 31, 2012 - PRLog -- In five years, the budget hotel brand has expanded internationally and become the umi Group by establishing a marketing agency to serve independent hotels and hospitality businesses and making franchise opportunities available across Europe.  The business can also boast that following its inception, it has been self-funded via its own cash flow and grown direct business to over a third, reducing third party commissions.  Its UK hotels have seen a combined 27% rise in gross operating profit over the last two financial years; even more reason to be celebrating this birthday.

Owner, Steve Lowy said “of course, I am immensely proud of what has been achieved so far but it would be naive not to acknowledge that as we grow forward and the model evolves, there is likely to be a need for funding to accelerate growth in all three parts of what the umi Group is today.”

“It may sound contrived, but our success really is down to the fantastic people that work across the umi group and truly believe in our brand values” Lowy added.

Lowy encouraged the hotel teams at each location to come up with their own ideas on how they wanted to celebrate the birthday.  Along with a SEA themed day (sea is the meaning of umi in Japanese) at umi Brighton, an alternative Olympics, a tea party and a charity quiz for RNLI, the company are running a competition offering the public the chance to win a five night stay in the umi hotel of their choice.  The competition details can be found via umi’s social media channels and websites.