Want to sell tourism success: – This was an adventure

No, I shouldn’t sell. But I feel the time has come. I’m not getting any younger. In addition, the plan now approved to build 60 to 80 new rooms here would probably be too big a financial boost to sustain on its own.

So says Odd Melas, 62, originally from Lykinger a little further up the fjord, who after 15 years ended up in San Francisco in the popular tourist village of Sogn.

She had a husband, Evan William Lewis, who saw great potential. And she herself was skeptical.

Powerful results

Local newspapers described the two as a somewhat awkward couple. Odd left behind a promising career as a bank manager at a Japanese commercial bank in the US, while Evan, 52, was a long-haired musician and ale from Rochester, New York.

– He is the one who made me come back to Norway. In 2004 we bought Furukroa, a small café in Flåm. And a little later, we built the Flåmsbrygga Hotel, which has 41 rooms. While Evan achieved his dream of building his own brewery after being inspired by everything that happened on the beer front on the West Coast of the USA, she says.

Ægir Bryggeri has since won many prizes.

– The beer market has become somewhat more difficult in recent years, but the tourism business has taken a hit if I do say so myself. “This has been an adventure,” Melas says.

This is also shown by the group figures for Vetlesyster’s parent company, which includes real estate, hotel operations, coffee shop, brewery pub, restaurant, brewery and more than 40 per cent stake in activity Fjordsafari Norway with a total of 68 shares. man years.

Last year, the group achieved revenue of NOK 92 million and operating profit of approximately NOK 12 million. For tourism, this is surprisingly strong, not least because subsidiary Ægir posted an operating loss of around NOK three million in the same year.

Great values

Melas has now been given permission to build a much larger hotel with up to 80 new rooms on six floors.

– I realized it was probably too much for us to handle on our own. The new building will cost more than NOK 100 million. Maybe even more than 200 million, if I, who’s very into design and architecture, decide. “It might not be very wise,” she says, laughing.

We could of course bring in outside owners, but then I think we would quickly become minority shareholders. “I don’t like other people deciding what to do,” she adds.

– I also think a little about age. But I’m in no hurry and might go on for a few more years, but I’d like to scout the terrain to see if anyone else wants to grab my gold here on the dock.

The potential sale includes all of the property, operations and shares of the activities company.

A record year for cruise tourists to Norway: – Love it

– What about Eger Pregerie?

– We’re open to selling it, too. The brewery may be sold separately, but Ægir and the rest of the business are closely linked.

– Who do you think could be the current buyer here? Do most of the big hotel chains prefer to be in cities only?

– That’s probably true, but then they’ll just need to know what numbers we have. Because while most of the city’s hotels struggle to reach an occupancy rate of more than 70 over the course of the year, we’re on track to achieve an occupancy rate of between 85 and 86 percent this year. In the month of October, we are currently at an occupancy rate of 93 percent. So we are definitely not a seasonal company.

up to 200 million?

Melas dares not say anything about what she thinks the highly lucrative touring group in Flam might be worth. But before depreciation, the group made a profit of more than NOK 16 million last year. If one were to calculate a yield of eight percent, that would indicate a potential value of NOK 200 million. In addition, comes the right to build up to 80 new rooms on his own plot of land in the center of the Tenderloin district of Flam.

Roar Ingdal has been appointed as Sales Consultant. He has extensive hotel experience and is now a Director of Colliers (formerly Pangea Property Partner) property advisory firm.

– We are talking here about companies that are among the most profitable in Norwegian tourism. This deal will include the operation of the hotel with large restaurant facilities, real estate, activities company, and a plot of land on which a six-storey hotel can be built next to the existing hotel. We don’t want to come up with a price estimate right now, but here there will certainly be interest from Norway and abroad, he wrote in an email.(conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using links that lead directly to our pages. Reproduction or other use of all or part of the Content is permitted only with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms see here.