Ramada Jarvis

Ramada Jarvis Hotels
Industry Hospitality
Headquarters High Wycombe, England
Area served
 United Kingdom
Website http://www.jupiterhotels.co.uk/

Ramada Jarvis was a chain of 4 star and 5 star hotels mostly located throughout the mainland of the United Kingdom, with a few managed internationally. The group's 42 hotels in the UK and five overseas went into liquidation in 2011 after experiencing cash flow problems. The Elcot Park Hotel in Newbury was one of the hotels in this chain, along with multiple others in large locations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire.

The business was founded by John Jarvis who floated it on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 when it was valued at about £495 million.[1] The company was taken private in 2003 in a management buyout for £159 million.[2]

Many of the Ramada Jarvis hotels in Britain had Sebastian Coe Health clubs. The clubs were also open to private members. The clubs had full gyms and pools with steam rooms, saunas, spa and massage rooms and hairdressers.

Ramada Jarvis went into liquidation on 30 September 2011 as a result of a severely restricted cash flow caused by the Group's principal bankers calling in loans before their term. 26 hotels were acquired by Jupiter Hotels Limited, a 50:50 joint venture between Patron capital and West Register, part of the Global Restructuring Group of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Those hotels have been re-branded Mercure under a franchise agreement with Accor. The joint venture investors are injecting £40m, with debt financing of £71m provided by RBS, HSBC and Bank of Ireland, which were the original lenders to Jarvis.[3]

Not all the Ramada Jarvis hotels were included in the Jupiter Hotels deal, so the Ramada Heathrow, the Ramada Bristol City and the Ramada Glasgow Airport continue to trade as Ramada Hotels, each as a franchise. The Gloucester Hotel and Country Club is now owned by Hallmark.

On 2 July the Ramada Heathrow property was re-branded as the DoubleTree by Hilton London Heathrow Airport.

References

  1. ↑ Leftly, Mark (24 May 2009). "Ramada Jarvis mulls options to tackle credit crunch". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  2. ↑ Mesure, Susie (12 December 2003). "Jarvis backs management buyout bid". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  3. ↑ Bold, Ben (3 October 2011). "Accor buys franchises to 24 hotels following RBS-backed Ramada Jarvis buyout". C&IT (Conference & Incentive Travel) magazine. Haymarket Media Group. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

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