For the first time, international hotelier and Taranaki dairy farm owner Gavin Faull is looking to outside investment to fund further rapid expansion of his global hospitality empire.
Swiss-Belhotel International has been led by Faull, its president and chairman, for the past 27 years. When he joined the company, Faull worked for three months for nothing. The company now runs 145 hotels, with plans to launch at least 60 new properties over the next few years.
“We’ve grown up without the need for capital, funding things for ourselves and that’s a pretty big ask,” he told NBR last year. “I am talking to a company in New Zealand and two or three in Singapore.”
Faull says he is also looking at opportunities in Bulgaria and two deals in Europe – in Germany and Switzerland.
At the end of last year, the company announced plans to launch a new value hotel brand, ZestOkay, in Auckland next year. The hotel will offer 320 rooms, aimed at travellers as well as student accommodation.
And in July it announced two new properties are to open in Queenstown next year. One will be under the budget Zest brand, while the other will be a mix of full-service hotel rooms and apartments. Swiss-Belhotel & Residences Queenstown will be a four-and-a-half star property with 194 hotel rooms and 32 apartments.
The company bought its first New Zealand property near Coronet Peak in 2013 and has since expanded with the Swiss-Belsuites Victoria Park in Auckland in 2016 and the Swiss-Belsuites Pounamu Queenstown in 2017.
In May, Faull went to Brazil to inspect the dairy industry there. His family runs the Supershed at Tikorangi, one of the biggest dairy farm operations in Taranaki.
Trewithen Farm was established by Faull's great-grandfather, Henry, in the 1840s and has been managed by Faull, with six other family members as directors, since 1990.
Asia remains the core of the hotel business, with three resort properties being developed in Nha Trang, Halong Bay and Phu Quoc in Vietnam.
Faull’s sons are also in the business, working across management and IT. He doesn’t have a regular office and relies on a network of more than a dozen vice-presidents to keep him informed.
Faull is a member of the Venture Taranaki board and the family supports schools and sports clubs and Taranaki art installations and galleries.
2018: $85 million