‘OZO’ to be newest brand in Sri Lankan hospitality

Sino Lanka Hotels Holdings yesterday announced a Rs. 4.5 billion investment plan for Sri Lanka at the ground breaking ceremony of its first ever hotel in Sri Lanka, OZO Colombo.

Located down Marine Drive, OZO Colombo will be the first of a series of hotels that will come up under the brand name ‘OZO.’

OZO, a select service brand is part of Thailand based hotel management company ONYX Hospitality Group’s four complementary brands. The hotels will be developed by ONYX under a signed management agreement with Sino Lanka. “We are well established in Thailand and as part of extending our reach across Asia, Sri Lanka was chosen to debut our OZO brand which will offer a fresh take on select services for both business and leisure travellers,” ONYX Hospitality Group President and CEO Peter Henley told the Weekend FT.

Under OZO, three hotels are set to come up 2013 in Colombo, Galle and Kandy. The investment for the three hotels, which will add 410 rooms in total to the country’s room inventory in 2013, is Rs. 4.5 billion.

“International brands are just beginning to come in to Sri Lanka. This coupled with the phenomenal post war potential of the country sets the ideal platform to make our mark in the island.”

He also commented that ONYX saw Sri Lanka as a ‘competitive duplicate.’ “The markets we were servicing for all this time, such as the European market would, we feel, take a flight to Sri Lanka now than fly all the way to Thailand. Having our presence in this country is also in a way, a measure to help our inbound business in Thailand.”

 He noted that Sri Lanka is currently sited as one of the most vibrant destinations in the Asia Pacific and the plan is to make the country a key hub for ONYX going forward.

The aim of the Thai-based company is to have more than 50 properties across the region by 2018 under its four brands Saffron, Amari, Sharma and OZO. He noted that the potential for the group to open up hotels under Amari and Sharma in Colombo and Galle within the next few years is high.

OZO Colombo is expected to deliver ‘five star experience for a three star price,’ will have 150 rooms in a 12 storied building with unique dining options and other innovative additions and facilities. OZO Galle and Kandy, for which the construction is expected to start within the next three months, will add another 260 rooms to the inventory. Henley said: “The building in Galle will be a resort. It will be a 148 room low rise building.” The project in Kandy will have 120 rooms.

Sino Lanka Holdings Director Stefan Furkhan noted that the company is a special purpose joint venture investment company established by dynamic business personality Bob Kundanmal, himself, the former Managing Director of the family owned Confifi Group of Hotels and Singaporean investors Rajan Bharvani and Manu Bhojwani.

“The company will launch six hotels altogether. With Colombo, Kandy and Galle now ready for construction, we have also acquired properties in Chillaw, Tangalle and for an exclusive island resort in Beruwala.” Total investment for all six projects is approximately US$ 100 million.

“We are pleased to be able to deliver a leading global brand to the local market. We wanted to leverage on foresight to offer first class facilities at mid price levels. OZO will better accommodate a range of guests lodging needs for business and leisure,” Furkhan commented.