Sterling Holiday Resorts Ltd, one of the country’s leading leisure hospitality brands, recorded its best ever first Quarter performance in Q1 FY 2024. The first quarter is traditionally the strongest quarter for leisure hospitality and Sterling has shown a healthy growth over its previous Q1 FY 2023 on all key financial parameters.
Sterling recorded the highest profit recorded by the company for any quarter in its history, with a PBT of INR 3,580 Lakhs for Q1 FY24. This is a 27% growth quarter on quarter (QOQ) over the Q1 FY23. PBT % stood at 31%.
The company recorded a turnover of INR 11,530 Lakhs for Q1 FY24. This represents a 13% growth QOQ. The resort revenue grew by 15% QOQ driven by an 8% QOQ growth in the Average Room Rate (ARR) and a 6% increase in Guest ratio to 65% from 59% QOQ. While the room-base grew by 234 rooms over the past 15 months owing to the addition of 8 new resorts, Occupancy continued to remain healthy at 74% for the quarter.
The business performance also resulted in the company recording its highest ever Operating Free Cash Flow (OFCF) in any quarter. The OFCF stood at Rs.4,100 Lakhs and is a 24% growth QOQ.
Commenting on the performance, Vikram Lalvani, the MD & CEO, said: “Sterling continues to perform strongly, driven by a buoyant industry that I expect to continue on a positive trend throughout this financial year, and powered by a strengthening Brand Sterling. We will continue our drive for sustained acceleration as we continue to expand our operations as well as build our technology and processes to enable us to efficiently scale-up even further.”
During Q1 FY24, Sterling has added 2 more resorts to its portfolio: Shimla (in Himachal Pradesh) and Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar (in Maharashtra) taking its portfolio to 42 resorts across 40 destinations. The company has a healthy pipeline and plans to open more resorts in FY24.
