DS Group's hospitality branch expands

Sayoni Bhaduri - Noida

The DS Group, known for products like Catch salt and pepper dispenser and Pass Pass mouth fresheners, has taken over the airport hotel in Kolkata. It is looking to enter the luxury, budget, leisure and resort segments with an investment of approximately Rs 700 crore for all hotel projects in hand as well as those yet to come up.

These projects are to be fully functional by 2010-2012. It has a special plan for the property in Kolkata - a destination complex with a 250-room five-star hotel, a 100-room budget hotel and a 50,000 square feet international conference facility.

Presently the group is financing the land and the development of most of its properties except for Guwahati. Rajiv Kumar, the group's vice chairman and managing director, informs, "In Guwahati, the government has come in as equity partners proportionate to the land cost."

The group is also planning a 200-room budget hotel with a banqueting and retail block in Jaipur and a 200-room five-star hotel in Guwahati. Its other projects are coming up in Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and other second tier cities like Udaipur, Shimla, Raipur, Buvaneshwar and the Jim Corbett area. The group is looking at both management and franchise to market the management partnership hotels and is also grooming an internal marketing team.

According to Kumar, the group took up the airport property because of the emergence of the IT sector in the east as well as the immense thrust that the West Bengal government is giving to industrialisation. Kumar added, "Large land pockets are being developed as residential complexes thereby creating opportunities for hotels. It made good business sense to invest in this property, which is right next to the airport."