Oetker Group to manage Saadiyat resort

The Oetker Group, best known for its Dr Oetker frozen pizzas and baking powder products, is to manage a luxury resort on Saadiyat Island.

This property will be the German group's second hotel planned for Abu Dhabi.

"We have done a memorandum of understanding … with NCT&H," said Samir Daqqaq, the Oetker Hotel Collection senior vice president for development, Middle East and Africa, referring to the National Corporation for Tourism & Hotels. NCT&H, which also owns the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi, is to develop the hotel.

The resort will join eight other hotels planned for the beach district of the multibillion-dirham Saadiyat Island development, with the Mandarin Oriental and Shangri-La among the other operators signed up for the properties. The cost of building the resort is not yet known, with planning set to start early next year, Mr Daqqaq said. Saadiyat Island will eventually be home to branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums.

The Oetker Hotel Collection, which owns and runs Hotel Le Bristol in Paris, plans to open Le Bristol Abu Dhabi in late 2012. This property is being developed by NCT&H, based in Abu Dhabi.

"It's going to be similar to what we have in Paris," Mr Daqqaq said.

Oetker, based in Germany, is famous for its Dr Oetker brand, which manufactures food products. But Oetker Group has also developed a highly diversified portfolio spanning industries as wide-ranging as publishing, maritime transport and luxury hotels.

A number of luxury properties are expected to open in the capital next year ahead of the Oetker hotel, including a Ritz-Carlton resort, the Rocco Forte hotel, the Jumeirah Etihad Towers, a St Regis hotel on Saadiyat Island, the Westin Hotel and Spa Abu Dhabi and Eastern Mangroves Angsana Resort and Spa. This planned increase in inventory has prompted concern among some hoteliers in Abu Dhabi that there will not be enough tourists to fill rooms in the short term.

Mr Daqqaq remained confident that Oetker's hotels in the capital could withstand the competition.

"We have to be really wary of that. But we're not a chain hotel," he said. "We're not trying to compete with anybody because we truly believe that we bring a total new definition to what luxury is, regardless of what is available in the market."

Oetker is planning 10 to 15 further hotels in the Middle East, Europe and Africa in the next 10 years.

"We have a pretty conservative development plan," he said, explaining that the group believes that each of its properties is "a masterpiece". Locations the company is seriously considering in the region include Dubai, Doha, Marrakech, Cairo and Beirut.

Net profit at NCT&H fell 15 per cent in the first nine months of this year to Dh89.3 million (US$24.3m) from Dh103.3m in the same period last year.

The company cited declines in hotel performance because of new supply in the capital as the reason for the profit decline. On its website, NCT&H has announced that the InterContinental Al Ain will be managed by its own management division, Danat Hotels and Resorts, and be rebranded Danat Al Ain on January 1.

rbundhun@thenational.ae