Eco has ambitious plans and is eyeing a portfolio of 200 hotels over the next ten tears A company that intends to roll out a chain of eco-friendly hotels across India is looking to raise £5mln ahead of a possible float in London later this year. Eco Hotels will target India’s burgeoning middle-class with carbon-neutral hotels built using modular designs at a factory in Pune. Gavin Brooking, group chief executive, says there is a huge gap in the market for an eco-friendly sustainable, carbon-neutral hotel chain in India. There are fewer hotels than in New York State, he adds, and those that are there are predominately four and five start outlets. Hotel companies such as LemonTree/Red Fox and Ginger have started to tap the aspiring middle-class market, but Brooking reckons there is still a huge opportunity in the mid-scale space. “We are going for the two/three star hotel market,” which is chronically underserved currently. The hotels will be situated close to business districts in tier one or tier two cities and be aimed at Indian nationals. By having a modular design, build costs are £30,000 per room or about a tenth of the cost of somewhere like London. Using modular techniques, Brooking expects to mitigate over 70% of the carbon footprint and because everything is built off-site and put together at the location ththere is a ‘massive impact’ on the speed of construction. Eco’s sister company Red Ribbon owns the factory that will produce the modular units. Initially, the plan is to use the money raised to buy a management company with an inventory of existing rooms that can refurbished and retrofitted. After that, the company will move into new build properties. Brooking has ambitious plans and is eyeing a portfolio of 200 hotels stretched across other Asian countries as well as India. A prototype hotel has been up and running in Cochin/Kochi in India since 2012 that has tested the operating procedures and technology. Everything is now ready to go, he says. As a model, he cites the success of the Citizen M chain in Europe and the US, which has opened a string of trendy hotels packed with gadgets for modern lifestyles. “Good Wi-Fi is essential,” he says, but he is also a fan of Citizen M’s funky meeting areas, designer furniture, free iMac rental, and clever use of space. Brooking adds that he is looking to raise the £5mln by September and chose London for the security and comfort for investors who want to invest, especially as there remains a degree of nervousness about investments in India. Eco Hotels has an operating company in India but the main all the holding companies here in the UK, he adds.
Eco Hotels plans to raise £5m (30,000) to develop carbon-neutral, modular hotels in India catering for the country's middle class, and aims to have a chain of 200 establishments across Asia. The prefabricated buildings will be produced off-site by sister company Red Ribbon, while the hotels will be sited near business districts in tier one and two cities. Eco Hotels, which may launch a London IPO later this year, will use the initial funding to acquire a management company with a refurbishable portoflio of rooms.