28 March 2020 12:00 am
Minor International Company Limited (MINT), a multinational hospitality player that has operations in Sri Lanka, announced that its properties, Anantara Kalutara and Avani Kalutara, have been temporarily consolidated into a single operation, to reduce cost.
MINT acknowledged the current situation is temporary and expressed confidence in the business improving, once the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ceases.
“Although the company is seeing a decline in business today, there will be significant pent-up demand when the situation improves. Such recovery is expected to be fast and significant and will partially make up for the shortfall that the company is currently experiencing,” MINT said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
In the announcement, MINT spelt out a detailed cost mitigation plan to help cushion its operations from the COVID-19 outbreak impact that has crippled the tourism sector across the world.
The international hospitality player said measures are being taken to minimise the impact on revenue and profitability by reducing the negative flow-through by means of several drastic cost-cutting initiatives to reduce both fixed costs and a percentage of variable costs to total revenues.
It stressed that the initiatives are being implemented across business units and support functions and across geographies.
In an effort to trim non-prioritised expenses, MINT said expenses are being reduced and tight cost control is being implemented. Some of the measures include cutting advisory and training initiatives and marketing and advertising costs in low-activity businesses, particularly the hotel business in Europe.
The company is also in negotiation with landlords globally to reduce or suspend rent payments. In terms of payroll and labour costs, it said the executives in corporate offices worldwide are taking a temporary deferral of a proportion of monthly salaries and all employees’ annual merit increases have been postponed, both for at least three months.
Furthermore, the company is reviewing full-time and part-time manning, temporary optimisation of workforce productivity and working hours for efficiency and is implementing leave without pay schemes.
Minor Hotels ventured into the Sri Lankan market with the launch of Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle, Anantara Kalutara Resort, Avani Bentota and Avani Kalutara.