Indian Hotel Co charts an aggressive growth plan

THE Indian Hotels Company, the Tata group firm that owns and operates the Taj brand of luxury hotels along with seven other brands, is on a revival path and has set a target for more than doubling its revenue to ₹15,000 crore and to double the number of its properties to 700 by the turn of 2030 when it will also double the numbers of key on offer to 70,000.

- BENN KOCHUVEEDAN

The company that owns the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the megapolis, which is one of the most iconic landmarks in the city, will invest nearly ₹5,000 crore in capex to achieve these objectives, or 5-6% of its annual turnover through the remainder of the decade, Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and chief executive of the company, told reporters here Tuesday.

The Tatas roped in Chhatwal in November 2017 to turnaround the heavily loss-making company. When he took over, ICHL was saddled with a debt pile of ₹3,000 crore and a consolidated revenue of ₹4,000 crore from which it had earned a paltry ₹63 crore.