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The office will be closed from 14th December to the 2nd January - For any hotel bookings please visit www.orionhotels.co.za - any other emergency inquiries please contact info@oriongroup.co.za
The financial year ending 30 June 2026 was another successful year in the ORION story. As in looking after a rose garden which requires seasonal pruning & tending, we shut down (pruned) two of our non performing businesses namely the Infinity Wellness Spas & Genset Corporation. This “pruning” was necessary for our executive team to focus on our other business units namely; Orion Real Estate, Orion Hotels & Resorts, Orion Apartments & Regus Flexible Office Solutions.
With the exception of Orion Hotels & Resorts all business units are meeting turnover & profitability targets. This year’s target is for all business units to increase profitability and to grow the gross asset base to exceed R1,5 billion.
At the recent GROUP annual strategic conference held at our beautiful Safari Hotel in Rustenburg we came up with an updated operating strategy “SIMPLER & FASTER TOGETHER”
This will sharpen the focus on continuous improvement and finding innovative solutions regarding operations & logistics.
Our in-house coaching & training programs have been updated and aligned with SIMPLER & FASTER TOGETHER
Currently there are multiple improvement, repair, upgrade & expansion projects running in five provinces simultaneously. Our management, supervision & supply chains are stretched quite thinly, but we are managing to keep the flow going.
AI has become part of our vocabulary, and we are steadfastly making more and more extensive use of AI. Some examples are; exterior and interior design of buildings, drafting of documents and policies, project feasibility reports etc.
The most profound change in the Orion business model has been the development of fully furnished residential apartments from previous hotel & office space. Two redevelopments, namely Promenade Place (Promenade Hotel) & 1 on Daphny (Wendywood office building) have been successfully completed and launched with very high occupancies exceeding our initial forecasts.
The current projects underway are;
Future residential developments will be 500 units at ACA Krans & 1000 units at One on First.
Aggressive development & expansion of our property portfolio requires significant development capital. To this end we have very cordial existing business relationships with Nedbank & Standard Bank. Additional funding is being sourced from other financial institutions. Additionally our FNB mortgage over Safari Hotel has been paid back and the R500k monthly instalment will be redeployed in the development of residential units at Safari Hotel and the general improvement of our hotel infrastructure.
Despite the additional development funding secured our LTV (loan to value) at 24% remains very conservative and way below industry norm.
At this point I need to re iterate that all of the above is made possible by our staff compliment of around 500 colleagues, numerous contractors, service providers, professionals and suppliers. A big thank you must also go to our financiers and funders. Without them our ambitious ideas would come to nought.
The Orion future is bright and provided we steadfastly stay the course with resolve & discipline the growth trajectory will be exponential.
I am looking forward to a great year ahead.
Franz Gmeiner
