Ritter: aims to continue growing Rezidor by 30 to 50 hotels a year, while maintaining the cost savings so far.
RITTER ON THE FUTURE
On Missoni Hotel
“It’s not a brand we would give up, whether there are bad times or good times, we will push through because it’s really a very timely brand, people love it.”
On the economy segment
“I think if we had time I would like to be in the two-star business because that’s a very lucrative business, especially in areas like the Middle East. It’s coming. It’s not yet really implemented in the Middle East; its not as it is in Europe. They still add ballrooms and swimming pools because somehow people expect it here in a hotel but the time will come when really price will matter and guests will say I don’t want to pay for that.”
On being the biggest hotel chain in Europe
“I don’t know. We don’t really have the ambition. If it happens it happens but we don’t grow just for the sake of growing, it has to be quality growth.”
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On catching up with Hilton
“We are the number two in Europe behind Hilton and have been for the last four years and the gap is closing. And then we have the biggest pipeline, now I sound as if I am bragging but they are facts. We have the biggest pipeline with Radisson and we have the biggest pipeline with Park Inn.”
On introducing more brands
“I don’t think so under my time, I want to consolidate what we have, I think we have enough on the plate. Out of the five, we really have two active brands that are Radisson and Park Inn. We have plenty.”
On retirement
“Probably one day I would aspire to be a happy retired person looking after my wife and my horses. Of course I will remain in the industry somehow on a board or something. I couldn’t imagine just to go and sit somewhere in the woods and look after the horses.”
On running a public company
“If you do a step to the left, rightly so they ask you why you went to the left. And I think it takes much more time to run a public listed company because you have all these compliance things and reports, so it is more difficult. But on the other hand it also gives you more opportunities. Now we are core business, we have investors so if I have a good idea, which I haven’t had yet, I can go to the investors and say look, I want to buy a company if I have a good story. We were listed in 2006 and since late 2007 we have had the credit crunch, so it’s not exactly the time to make big jumps but I’m sure if we need money in the future we can get it more easily today than we could before.”
On targeting emerging markets
We shifted almost exclusively into the emerging markets two years ago. So where we really look at is Africa and CIS. We go into all the CIS countries and the main cities — in Russia alone there are 50 cities we have targeted with more than 400,000 inhabitants.
On the next 50 years
I’m not worrying about that! It sounds good when you say we are 50 years old but we are really 15 years old, because it’s been 15 years since the growth has taken off. I do not have a single doubt that we are doing anything wrong by growing so fast, I think it’s the right thing to do. These superlatives, whether we are first or this or that; we will just try to keep this position.”
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