InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) has acquired the RubyTM brand and related intellectual property from Ruby SARL for an initial purchase consideration of €110.5m (~$116m1). Ruby is a premium urban lifestyle brand for modern travellers in must-visit city destinations. It provides hotel owners with space-efficient designs and an attractive, flexible concept that IHG expects to expand rapidly globally.
Established in 2013, the Ruby brand currently operates 20 hotels (3,483 rooms) in major European cities and has another 10 pipeline hotels (2,235 rooms). There are nine hotels open in Germany (across Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart), three in the UK in London, three in Austria (Vienna), two in Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich), and one in each of Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. The pipeline hotels are set to open over the next three years across more European cities including Edinburgh, Marseille, Rome and Stockholm.
Ruby hotels offer a stylish yet relaxed charm, blending soulful design and authentic stories rooted in the cities they call home. The brand’s ‘Lean Luxury’ approach includes signature touches ranging from a great bed and shower in guest rooms created with restoration and relaxation in mind to unique cocktails in destination 24/7 bars, all coming together to connect guests with sought-after cities at the right price.
As our 20th brand, Ruby will extend IHG’s appeal to modern, lifestyle-focused travellers, and offers hotel owners a cost-efficient and highly adaptable premium hotel concept, in an industry segment characterised by high barriers to entry and space constraints, often referred to in the industry as ‘urban micro’. Efficiencies for owners are delivered through space-saving designs and a high degree of operational standardisation and automation, including self-service kiosks for a speedy check-in.
Ruby is already well-established in Europe and has proven to be successful for both new build locations as well as being highly conversion-friendly, including for adaptive re-use across a range of commercial property types, with several successful office conversions. Reflecting this, the Ruby brand has achieved a net system size compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 per cent over the last five years. The seller of the brand anticipates growing their portfolio of Ruby-branded hotels substantially further, and IHG expects to grow the brand with other hotel owners in Europe and globally. This builds upon IHG’s proven track record of successfully internationalising brands that it has organically developed and acquired. IHG expects to have the Ruby brand ready for development in the US by the end of the year.
Joining forces with IHG allows Ruby Hotels to draw on a powerful enterprise platform of distribution and technology systems, as well as one of the world’s biggest and most powerful hotel loyalty programmes, IHG One Rewards. IHG expects the urban micro sub-segment to continue experiencing strong demand from travellers around the world, and this in turn would support ongoing rooms supply growth at higher rates than the global hotel industry. IHG is targeting the Ruby brand to grow to more than 120 hotels over the next 10 years and accelerate to more than 250 over 20 years across owners globally.
Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said, “We are delighted with the acquisition of Ruby, which further enriches our portfolio with an exciting, distinct and high-quality offer for both guests and owners in popular city destinations. This acquisition demonstrates our focus on building our presence in large, attractive industry segments and using our experience of integrating and growing brands and hotel portfolios. The urban micro space is a franchise-friendly model with attractive owner economics, and we see excellent opportunities to not only expand Ruby’s strong European base but also rapidly take this exciting brand to the Americas and across Asia, as we have successfully done with previous brand acquisitions.”
Michael Struck, Founder and CEO of The Ruby Group, added, “We have carefully selected IHG as the right partner to take the Ruby brand and our international expansion to the next level. IHG’s distribution powerhouse, the fact that Ruby perfectly complements IHG’s portfolio, and its proven track record of successfully preserving identity and culture when integrating brands gives us great confidence as we embark on this next chapter together. Combining the global reach and resources of IHG with the efficiency advantages of our operational and construction model will drive superior returns for our investors and real-estate partners, alike. Also, the timing could not be better. Our unique solutions for efficient adaptive re-use of office space are in high demand, positioning us for strong growth.”
