SERHS NATAL GRAND HOTEL

Described since it was opened on 1st November 2005, as “the jewel in the crown” of the SERHS Group, the first hotel of our corporation abroad rises in Natal, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), a 5-star hotel according to European standards. Its capacity of close to 1,000 places, thanks to the diversity of its 396 rooms, along with its excellent location on the beach head on the Via Costeira, in front of the Parque das Dunas, and amidst the paradisiacal beaches of Areia Preta and Ponta Negra, make it an emblematic hotel.

It is not surprising that it was awarded as “O MELHOR RESORT DE PRAIA” in Brazil by the prestigious travel guide “Quatro Rodas”, the equivalent of the certified European Michelin Guide, and with a 42-year trajectory as the reference guide in the country, with a circulation of more than 240,000 copies. This award was given on 9th October 2006, during the “Noite das Estrelas”, coinciding with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the publishing house, which took place in the Tom Brasil Naçôes Unidas in Sao Paulo, with the presentation of the “Nova Guia Brasil 2007” and the “Guide to restaurants with stars in Brazil”, which also highlighted one of the restaurants of the hotel, the “Tapiro Grill”, specialised in meat.

This award and certification recognised the deserving enthusiasm of the whole team of people and professionals of this hotel establishment formed by 400 people, who have managed to give personalised attention with a strong accent on hospitality.



Moreover, the tourist information magazine “Brasil Travel News”, with the support of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agencies (ABAV), in April 2007 gave the SERHS Natal Grand Hotel one of the “10 Más del Turismo” prizes in the category of “Best beach hote resort”. This monthly publication has a circulation of 55,000 copies and has been in Brazil for 20 years.

The hotel has a varied offer of meeting rooms with versatile ambientation and specialised services. There are a total 10 rooms for different uses depending on needs, allowing from an auditorium for 500 people or a maximum 600, in the case of a cocktail, or 290 in the case of a banquet. The hotel also has an exhibition hall of 486 m2.
Significantly, there is more and more political, cultural and social activity carried out by the institutions of the state of Rio Grande do Norte and its capital, Natal, in the SERHS NATAL Grand Hotel, which is also the location for high level meetings, which means that our hosts include the majority of governors and ministers of Brazil. This has also been the choice of business corporations such as the Banc del Nordeste do Brasil, which will be holding its annual convention there, or automobile multinationals such as FIAT, which use the hotel to present its range or new models for South America, and recently the meeting of the heads of the air forces of the American continent (Conjefamer), and the 22nd International Audiology Meeting, with the participation of 700 professionals of the sector.

This year has been intensely experienced by the hotel with regard to visits from VIP figures such as two footballers, true world champion cracks with the “canarinha”, the Brazilian team: Edmilson from Futbol Club Barcelona and Ronaldo, now with Milan Football Club, who undoubtedly gave the establishment notoriety due to the great media coverage they bring.

The good image given by the SERHS Natal Grand Hotel has meant that the state authorities often agree on their tourist promotion policies when projecting this destination on the international market. Furthermore, it must be said that the SERHS NATAL Grand Hotel was the operations base for the travel and adventure programme “Km 33”, on TV3, Televisió de Catalunya, which devoted a 30-minute chapter to Brazil in September 2006, repeated in May 2007, in which the main figure of the report crosses 800 Km of beach in a buggy, from Natal, and is surprised by the sign in the hall, “We are and we will be”; as mentioned in the film, “A clear message that the establishment had been promoted by a Catalan business group”.



Commemorative party for the “500 days” of the SERHS NATAL Gran Hotel

One the past 15th May, to celebrate 500 days of the opening of our hotel in Brazil, the Serhs Natal Grand Hotel, a party was held to thank the population of Rio Grande do Norte for the welcome they had given us from the beginning of the hotel project, and to reward certain outstanding characters of the state with the Serhs Natal Gold Card.

This card offers its holders a series of advantages for using the hotel installations, as a reflection of our great determination to offer our establishment to the whole population of Natal and the state of Rio Grande do Norte, so that they might enjoy the excellent services as individual customers and also with their companies.

The event was attended by nearly 200 figures from the area, including the Governess of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Ms. Wilma de Faria, and the State Secretary for Tourism, Mr. Fernando Fernández, in addition to a large representation of the business sector in the North-East of Brazil.

It is now three years since the SERHS Group purchased land of 110,000 m2 with installations of 30,000 m2, for 2 million euros in the town of Parnamirim (Rio Grande Do Norte), not very far from Natal on a large axis of communication. The intention is to start up a large operations centre to allow all of the Group’s know how to be applied now that the Hotel in Natal is up and running.
In November 2006, following the mentioned land, our corporation purchased 180,000 m2 of land for 1 million euros. This new investment will allow the surface to be increased up to nearly 300,000 m2, to help the development of this new activity, aimed at offering an integral service in the field of product distribution and services aimed at professionals of the sector of hostelry, restaurants and collectives in the area.

The SERHS Group, along with the company ROSTOY of Murcia, a family company founded in 1958 and leaders in the sector, engaged in producing and commercialising fruit juices, have created a mercantile entity under the name of “ROSTOY MARROC”. This company deals with developing the activity of the factory, opened on 12th September 2006, under the presidency of the Minister of Industry and Trade in Morocco. This facility is in a strategic place, in the “El Majd” industrial area in the city of Tangiers, located close to the road to Tetuan, to the port and the Tangiers-Rabat-Casablanca-Marrakech motorway. It has a covered 1,800 m2, 900 m2 uncovered, ground floor and office attic, and the total investment was 1,500,000 euros.

The production plant operates in two work lines, brick packing, with an annual capacity of 8 million litres, and glass bottling, with 10 million litres. There are currently 16 workers, a figure which is expected to rise to 30 in 2007. The main markets are basically Morocco, the Maghreb and other Arab countries, and also western Africa (French-speaking area). The processed products are fruit juices and nectars (peach, orange, pineapple, mango, banana, tomato, apricot, apple, pear and cocktail).



From the commissioning of the plant and the different distribution agreements reached, the target for 2007 is to start exporting product, particularly to the African market, and to gain a significant presence in the Moroccan modern distribution market.

In 2006, the SERHS Group achieved one of the three large concessions of the Moroccan government to create a tourist operator called Express Voyages, the creation of which is framed within the plan driven by the state administration to encourage interior domestic tourism.

Morocco is a country which in recent years has experience great growth in tourism, above all based on European tourism, due to the constant increase in the number of hotel places and the recent introduction of the main low cost airlines, so this growth is expected to be very considerable in the coming years.

The project of the Serhs Group in Morocco is led by our Morocan agency Express Voyages, which will have the operational and technological support of the Toruism Area.

Morocco’s great tourist appeal means that our leadership in vacational tourism in many European markets and the powerful technological platform we now have will leave us in a privileged position so that Express Voyages, might, in a short time, become a reference agency in the country, as we will be able to use our know how in the sector, our network of customers, and do so with great efficiency and innovation thanks to the most advanced tools we now have, which have been implemented and adapted to take advantage of the full potential of Morocco, both from the point of view of selling the European product in the market and from the side of selling the Moroccan product on the European markets.