We had over 83% occupancy in 2024 – Transcorp Hotel MD
How has the experience been for Transcorp Hilton?
It’s been wonderful. It’s been really, really good. And I think the first thing is that we’re so grateful for everything that we have achieved this year. We work together collectively as a team, and we’re a team that believes very strongly in excellence. We believe very strongly in giving our guests the best service throughout and so Christmas for us is a season to show appreciation to all of our guests. We always start in the first week, or in fact, first three days of the Christmas to kind of like we officially launch Christmas in the town of Abuja, and in Nigeria, actually, to be honest, we have children around coming to listen and enjoy the, you know, the Christmas festivities we feed people. And, you know, we’re just grateful for such a great year. And we’re also very hopeful that we’re going to go into an amazing 2025.
A lot of guests came around including some of your loyal customers, how has their testimonial been for 2024
I think as Nigerians, you know, the country has been challenging, but the appreciation that we have in life and, you know, good health is something that we all just always like to celebrate. We have so many loyal customers, guests who come to us day in, day out, either they come to stay at the hotel, or they come to enjoy the food, or even the spa that we have at the hotel, you know, or even the sporting amenities, from swimming to tennis to suya, everything is unique here, you know, we have such a diverse offering. So, they come in daily to come and enjoy all of these things. What better way to say appreciation and thank you to them than to actually have them here with us, celebrating and enjoying with us. And I think the feedback has been great, everybody. As you saw there was singing, as you know, eating, laughing, dancing. It’s a joyous occasion for us. It’s been one that is very, very good.
With the chairman coming around, what does that signify?
So, you know, we had a board meeting today, our 100th board meeting for Transcorp PLC. You can imagine, as a group we’ve had, you know, we believe so strongly in corporate governance. And today we had all our board members here, you know, to discuss how our performance was this year, and also to focus on what we need to do better. And going into the new year, we talked about the economy, and we also reviewed the impact on the businesses. So overall, we’ve had a successful year. Our numbers are great. We have challenges, but we are, you know, we’re very dogged, we’re very disciplined, we’re tenacious, and we believe strongly in Nigeria. We are proud to be the citizens of this country, and we know that we have to continue fixing things to make sure that it works. We’re invested in power, we’re invested in energy, we’re invested in hospitality. And so, these are key areas in Nigeria. You know that if we can fix them, it will be better for everybody as a nation.
As for numbers, the numbers for 2023 were great. So perhaps you may want to tell us some sort of projections as to how you’re looking at 2024?
We’re going to finish very, very strong. We’re so happy about the numbers that we’ve achieved so far. Our occupancy, we have at over 83% you know, for a 677-room hotel, that is exceptionally good. It means that almost every day of the week we are busy. In terms of our profitability as well, very, very strong numbers. Our revenue was surpassing all the numbers from previous year. We’re in a good place, and we know that we’re positive and optimistic that next year will be better. There are things obviously that we’re constantly challenged with, which is the increasing cost of running business. You know, we all live in Nigeria. We know the Band A costs that have been given to us. We also know the cost of diesel and all of these things of running a business. But every year, you know, we strategize and say, how can we do things differently to make sure that we’re running efficiently as a business, we’re keeping an eye on our cost and we’re being very innovative and ensuring that we bring in new strategies. You would see already; we’re starting to talk about our Christmas offers. We want families to come here. We want to give discounts to people to bring their families here and enjoy the leisure because, you know, obviously, we all know what the foreign exchange is saying and the devaluation we have seen. We want Nigerians to start to look within and look in the country and say, I don’t have to go to Dubai. I don’t have to go to London. I don’t have to go to all of these places I can enjoy just as much in Nigeria. We have a handicraft village behind here. You can actually shop for gifts, beads, you know, nice things that are locally made. We’re really trying to promote more of Nigeria and more of Africa. And we’re quite happy about that one particular product.
One product that didn’t come was the event centre?
We are so excited. Don’t say it never happened. So actually, in October, we had 6000 people from ICAN actually have their event at the event centre. We’re so focused on excellence, we’re so focused on perfectionism. What we said is, we’re almost ready, but let’s test it with some events, and look at the things that we need to improve. We have what we call our snagging list. We actually launched it. We had 6000 people from ICAN, and then two days or three days after, we had a very big wedding that was 2500 people. In fact, every day, I’m receiving messages, people saying, we want to book your hall. My daughter wants to get married. Why can’t we use it? And we’re saying you know what, the hall will be ready in the first quarter of next year. What we’re doing now is, you know, just little things, ensuring that we can improve the sound, the video, all of those things. But, you know, I’m so excited to say that it’s ready, and it’s something that Abuja is going to be so excited to constantly come to because there will be more events, you know, more drama, plays, and all of those things, musical concerts, all of those things happening there. And we’re truly excited about it.
The Transcorp homes, when are we looking at?
In fact, where we’ve made significant progress, we acquired more land, and now what we’re doing is working on a redesign to ensure that we can actually deliver the 315 homes. But there’s so much that we’re looking at. So, in addition to the event centre, we’re also excited to actually expand here, because one of the things we’ve seen, like I said, we’re doing 83 per cent which means that almost all our rooms are fully booked and we’re having to turn back guests. So now we want to focus very strongly on actually building an extension here, and that extension is going to make sure that we have more rooms that we don’t have to turn away our guests so they can enjoy the excellent and the five-star service and treatment they have become accustomed to with us at Transcorp Hotels. We’re looking at a minimum. We’ll start with 100 and that would be the focus, and then we’ll take it off from there.
How many rooms do you hope to add?
We are looking at a minimum hundred. That will be the focus and we will take it up from there.
What will you be telling your loyal customers? Come 2025, what should they be expecting?
Buy Transcorp shares, we’re only going up. Come and stay with us. Come and enjoy our beds, our pillows, our food, recreational places, from the swimming pool to the tennis court to the gym, to the dance classes and the spa, when you want to relax, just come and stay with us and enjoy. We give great discounts, particularly at Christmas. We will have university. We have special offers, and all the way into the next year as well. From Valentine to Eid, to summer, we have so many promotions that would be for people to come and stay and enjoy the five-star treatment that we always give at Transcorp Hotels Plc and Transcorp Hilton.
What plans do you have to use more local content to drive value in Nigeria?
It’s so, so important to us. Any business that tries to run now by importing can never survive, because, as we know, even disposable income amongst our people is not really there as everybody’s income has actually reduced, whether we like it or not. So, we’re very, very focused on local content. You know, our foods are grown as much as possible around our environment, and what is not grown around our environments, we’re bringing from northern areas and other areas. We’re very, very focused on local content, you know, in terms of food, in terms of even amenities, we’re constantly looking at how we can localize. This is a very strong drive for us, and it’s important. We started to actually look at how we can actually grow some things ourselves locally within our premises, in a way to ensure that the things that we don’t even have to buy outside of here. Constantly. We’re looking internally and that’s the most important thing for us, local content, we continue to push it.
