Staycity Aparthotels: Brexit won't change our expansion plans
Tom Walsh, CEO of the Dublin-based aparthotel operator said the company would continue to forge ahead with plans to grow its European business from 2,700 apartments to 4,000 by the end of this year and 15,000 by 2021.
“We remain committed to expanding in Europe and the UK, where we are actively looking for further sites which will allow us to grow further in line with projections in our five year business plan," he said.
The UK is a key market for Staycity, Walsh said with new sites in Covent Garden, Liverpool and Manchester set to join those in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Heathrow. The company's seventh UK site - a 197-bedroom aparthotel - opens on Thursday in York.
“While the UK’s exit from Europe is likely to cause some uncertainty in both the property and the hotel sectors, particularly when it comes to investment, the UK is strategically an important destination for us to operate within so I can see no reason to change our plans," he said.
Speaking at the start of the Serviced Apartment Summit Europe (12-13 July), Walsh said Staycity's performance had been strong over the last year.
“Our turnover reached €40m last year and is expected to grow to €50m this year," he said "A strong performance with higher margins saw our EBITDA rise from €3.85m in 2014 to €5.65m in 2015, up 46 per cent, despite significant additional investment in growth. This was well ahead of our budget for the year and was achieved on notable results across many of our cities."
