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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has reported “excellent” growth in 2014, with the UK outperforming the rest of Europe.
According to the groups preliminary results for the year to December 31 2014, revenue dropped to $1.86b (£1.21b) during the year, down from $1.9b (£1.24b) the year before.
Reported operating profits fell 3%, down from $668m (£435m) to $651m (£424m), but were up 10% on a constant currency basis.
The Americas contributed over 68% of the group’s operating profit with revenue per available room (revpar) up 7.4% in 2014.
The group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, said that trading was particularly strong in the UK, up 8.9%, with low double digit growth in the province and high single digit growth in London.
The company said that it is in the process of streamlining its business and will transfer most of its UK managed hotels to franchise contracts, in an attempt to ‘accelerate’ growth in the UK.
Some 21 hotels were transferred in 2014 during 2014, with the remaining hotels set to transfer this year. The group expects UK franchised income to rise by $3m (£1.94m) as a result of these changes.
Richard Solomons, chief executive at IHG, said: “2014 was an excellent year for IHG as we delivered against our long-term winning strategy for high quality growth. We achieved strong RevPAR performance of 6.1%, and our best net system size growth since 2009 of 3.4%, increasing our operating profit on an underlying basis by 10%.
“Looking into 2015, we face many macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, but are confident that our strategy for high quality growth coupled with the momentum in the business positions us well for continued strong performance.”
