HONG KONG-based New World Hospitality has changed its name to Rosewood Hotel Group, a move it says makes sense as the Rosewood brand, which it acquired in 2011 for US$229.5 million (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 21, 2011), is most widely-represented geographically.
Rosewood Hotel Group continues to manage three brands, the luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, deluxe New World Hotels and ‘neighbourhood lifestyle’ Pentahotels.
“As Rosewood is the group’s marquee brand, and the one whose properties are most widely represented geographically, we feel it is more appropriate for the company to adopt the Rosewood name,” said CEO Sonia Cheng.
The name change comes as the group gears up for expansion, from 40 hotels in 14 countries in the portfolio now, to 90 hotels worldwide in operation or pipeline in five years. “This lends the right positioning for this scale of growth,” Symon Bridle, COO, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an email.
On marketing plans for the marquee and its three brands following this name change, Bridle said: “Our visibility is established through participation in industry and developer conferences and an active development team, while the individual brands are marketed quite separately and independently as our focus remains on developing the brands individually according to their distinct market tiers and customer bases.”
Cheng, who is travelling, could not be reached for further comments on the pros and cons of trading the old New World name, which is household in Hong Kong and China, with the US-originated Rosewood, which is relatively new in Asia. New World Hospitality had existed since the 1980s, part of Hong Kong conglomerate New World Group, and was re-established in 2006 under Cheng’s charge.
The latest move marks a new chapter in Cheng’s US$1.1 billion effort to establish a global hospitality company (View From the Top, TTG Asia, December 3, 2010).
