WANT Want Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-listed maker of rice crackers and sweets, said yesterday it plans to diversify its business into the booming mainland hotel industry.
Its push has been motivated by growing accommodation demand from both business and leisure travelers in China.
The company will have four hotels under operation by the end of next year in different parts of the mainland, according to Adams Lin, director and vice president of Want Want Holdings.
"Besides the San Want Hotel in the city's Xuhui District - formerly known as the Qianhe Hotel which is under renovation - we have three more in the pipeline in Nanjing, Huai'an and Xining," Lin told Shanghai Daily yesterday. "Under our plan, they will all be managed by Want Want itself."
Want Want already runs the four-star San Want Hotel in downtown Taipei.
The company acquired the Qianhe Hotel in January, 2005, and is building the other three mainland facilities from scratch. An earlier media report said the company aims to open 50 to 60 hotels on the mainland. Lin confirmed that they do want to expand the business, but could not provide an exact timetable.
The firm, which generates about 90 percent of its revenue from the Chinese mainland, has also tapped into other real-estate sectors, such as residential and office developments.
So far, Want Want has invested a total of US$150 million to develop residential properties with a total built-up space of 800,000 square meters in Lianyungang, Xuzhou and Huaian in Jiangsu Province, Anqing in Anhui Province and Luohe in Henan Province.
They will be sold at between 2,000 yuan (US$260) to 3,000 yuan per square meter, according to Lin.
Want Want also has a Grade-A office building in the city's downtown Jin'an District, which is almost ready for lease now.
According to a recently released report by the Ministry of Commerce, sales achieved in the country's hotel and restaurant industries jumped 17.9 percent to 581.18 billion yuan in the first half of this year, outpacing the growth rate recorded in the same period a year ago.
The ministry also estimated that demand for hotels and restaurants across the country will continue to be robust and further drive sales in the second half.
According to its estimate, sales could reach 638.8 billion yuan in the coming six months and therefore bring this year's total to 1.22 trillion yuan, a growth of 18 percent from 2006.