Forte Group

Forte Group plc

Company type	Public
Industry	Hotels Catering
Predecessor	Slaters and Bodega
Founded	1935(1935)
Founder	Charles Forte
Defunct	2001(2001)
Fate	Acquired
Successor	Granada
Headquarters	London,UK
Key people	Rocco Forte (Chief executive officer)

TheBalmoral HotelSituated at the southern end ofEdinburgh'sNorth Bridgeon the junction with Princes Street. The Balmoral Hotel is now part of theRocco Forte Hotel Group.

Forte Group plcwas a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on theLondon Stock Exchangeand was a constituent of theFTSE 100 Indexuntil it was acquired byGranadain 1996. Its head office was in theLondon Borough of Camden.

History

Charles Forte(26 November 1908 – 28 February 2007) was a British/Italian caterer and hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became Forte Group. Charles Forte, funded by his two business partners, Eric Hartwell and Sidney Hartwell, set up his first "milk bar"on Regent Street in London in 1935 asStrand Milk Bar Ltdwhen he was 26.

Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses. After theSecond World War,his company became Forte Holdings Ltd, and boughtThe Café Royalin 1954.Forte was a major caterer at theFestival of Britainsites in 1951 and also operated the restaurants and bars atLondon Airport,later known as London Heathrow airport. Forte opened the first fullmotorway service stationfor cars atNewport Pagnellin 1960.Forte expanded into the confectionery business, first by purchasing Fullers, based in Hammersmith, before purchasing the largerTerry's of Yorkin 1963.Trust Houses Group Ltd (previouslyTrust Houses Ltd) and Forte Holdings merged in 1970 to become Trust Houses Forte or THF.The name was simplified to Trusthouse Forte in 1979.

Through mergers and expansion, the Forte Group expanded into a multibillion-pound business. As well as The Café Royal, it also owned theGrosvenor House Hotel,Quaglino'sandTalk of the Townin London.It also included theLittle Chefroadside restaurants, Forte Grand,Travelodge,Posthouse andCresthotels,Harvester restaurants,contract catering firm Gardner Merchant, theSummerlandleisure complex on the Isle of Man, the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal, sporting goods retailerLillywhites(which adjoined the group'sCriterion Restaurant) and a majority (although non-controlling) stake in theSavoy Hotel.Internationally, it owned theHotel George V,Plaza Athénéeand Hotel de la Tremoille in Paris and the Bermudiana in Bermuda.Happy Eaterand the fiveWelcome Breakservice areas were bought fromHanson Truston 1 August 1986.The group for a time started to resemble a conglomerate with interests spanning theSidgwick & Jacksonpublishing house, theTerry'schocolate company, Puritan Maid and a stake inThomas Cooktravel agents.

Charles Forte was the CEO from 1971 and chairman upon the retirement of Eric Hartwell from 1983 (when his sonRocco Fortetook over as CEO).

In the early 1990s, the company was rebranded asForteand the crown logo was adopted at the same time. This rebranding also heralded the introduction of sub brand groups for almost all the hotels (Posthouse, Crest, Heritage, Grand etc.). Lord Forte passed full control to Rocco in 1993. In 1994, the company purchased theLe Méridienhotel chain.Soon after Rocco took over, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid fromGranada.Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.9 billiontender offerin January 1996, which left the family with around £350 million in cash.

In 2001, following the de-merger ofCompass plcfrom Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Sir Rocco Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover. Rocco now owns theRocco Forte Hotelsgroup.

Operations

Most of the hotels used the following brands:

Travelodge

The Forte group acquired this USbudget hotelbrand and rolled it out in the UK. The hotels were originally sited alongside the group's Little Chef roadside cafes. Travelodge used navy blue branding. The office building which was the former Forte Group corporate headquarters at 166 High Holborn, London, has, many years after the Forte Group was taken over and broken up, been turned into aTravelodge(the chain having expanded to comprise a much larger number of urban hotels).

Forte Posthouse

Hotels were mostly three-star hotels for business travellers. They were usually located in city centres or near major trunk roads. Some of these were sold toHoliday Inn.These hotels used red branding.

Forte Heritage

Hotels ranged from smaller country house style hotels, e.g., The Old England Hotel in Windermere, theBerystedein Ascot and Leeming House in Ullswater, to former coaching inns such as theBurford Bridge Hotelat Box Hill, the Swan at Lavenham and the Bull at Long Melford. In addition, the brand included some larger resort type hotels such as the Grand Atlantic at Weston Super Mare, the Marine Hotel at North Berwick and the Imperial Hotel, Exmouth; and some smaller resort hotels such as the Dart Marina Hotel in Dartmouth and the Brudenell Hotel in Aldeburgh. Some of these were sold toMacdonald Hotels,others are now operated byMercure Hotels,others are owned by small groups or independently. These hotels used dark green branding.

Forte Crest

Hotels were more upmarket business hotels than Forte Posthouse. They were mostly located in cities and were mostly four-star. The naming convention was Forte Crest + the name of the city or locality, e.g.Forte Crest Sheffieldor Forte Crest Gatwick Airport. Perhaps the most high-profile hotel was the huge Forte Crest Heathrow, now a Holiday Inn. The signage and general get up colour of Crest hotels was light blue/aquamarine.

Forte Grand

Hotels were a collection of high-end international hotels including the Waldorf Hotel, Westbury Hotel and Hotel Russell in London, theBalmoral Hotel(formerly "The North British Hotel" ) in Edinburgh, the Bath Spa Hotel in Bath, Leeming House in Ullswater, theRandolph Hotelin Oxford,The Majestic Hotelin Harrogate, the Compleat Angler in Marlow, theRusacks Hotelin St Andrews and the Imperial Hotel at Torquay. There were also a number of hotels which used Forte Grand as their sole name, for example the Forte Grand, Abu Dhabi hotel. Following the acquisition ofLe Méridien,the Forte Grand brand was dramatically cut back, with the urban hotels being transferred to the Le Méridien brand, and all the regional UK Forte Grand hotels being demoted to the Forte Heritage brand. The Balmoral Hotel was the first hotel reacquired byRocco Fortefollowing the takeover and after an extensive refurbishment it forms part ofThe Rocco Forte Collection.Forte Grand hotels used bronze signage, with general branding in dark red/burgundy.

Le Méridien

This international hotel chain was acquired from Air France in 1994 and would from then on form the cornerstone of the Group's international mid/upper market offering. These hotels used grey branding.

The top tier of hotels were discreetly branded Exclusive Hotels by Forte, and included some of the world's most venerable 5 star hotels, for example, theHôtel George-V,Plaza Athénéeand Hotel de la Tremoille in Paris;Brown's Hotel,Grosvenor Houseand theHyde Park Hotelin London; theRitzin Madrid; the Westbury and Plaza Athénée in New York; Hotel des Bergues in Geneva;Hotel Edenin Rome;Sandy Lane Hotelin Barbados etc. The Savoy Group would have added to this collection and augmented its prestige, had overall control been secured, as the Forte Exclusive hotels suffered somewhat in terms of prestige by association with the rest of the group's hotels. At the time of the Granada takeover the Exclusive Hotels brand contained 21 hotels. Granada failed to find buyers for the hotels as a group and it took a significant time for them to divest itself of these hotels to numerous different owners/operators. Some examples of the current owners/operators includeMandarin Orientalwhich has the Hyde Park Hotel, in London and Hotel Ritz, in Madrid;Four Seasons Hotels and Resortswhich has Hotel des Bergues, in Geneva and Hôtel George-V, in Paris;Marriott Internationalwhich has the Grosvenor House hotel, managed under its JW Marriott brand, in London; and, notably,Rocco Forte Hotelswhich has Brown's Hotel in London.

London hotels

From the first move from catering into hotels (the purchase ofThe Waldorf), the group had a foothold in the London hotel market, which it significantly expanded over the years. On adoption of sub brands, some of the London hotels were moved to sub brands, others were not. For example, theHotel Russell,Westbury Hotel and the Waldorf Hotel became Forte Grand. The top tier of London hotels were already part of the Exclusive group which had existed long before the early 90s reorganisation/rebranding. London also had Posthouse and Crest hotels. However, there remained a number of London hotels which were not part of sub brands and these were banded together under the umbrella London Hotels. These included the Cumberland Hotel, theRegent Palaceand theStrand Palace(all acquired from theJ. Lyons and Cohotels subsidiary in the late 60s/early 70s) and they were joined by most of the London Forte Grand hotels when the Forte Grand brand was axed, althoughThe Cavendishwas an exception as it joined the Crest brand. These hotels all used their own logos and standard Forte corporate branding (Forte plus crown device in white and navy blue).

Viscount Hotel

In the 1980s, Forte owned the Viscount Hotels brand in the United States.

External links

• Forte Group(Archive)