Stella Hospitality changes name. Saturday, 28th November 2009 Source : Mantra Group

One of Australia and New Zealand’s largest accommodation providers, Stella Hospitality Group, announced it had changed its name to Mantra Group.

The company name change follows the recent announcement that the Stella Group has been restructured and recapitalized with Stella Travel Services and Stella Hospitality Group being separated into two independently operating businesses.

Mantra Group chief executive officer Bob East said the rebranding would herald an exciting phase of growth and expansion for the company.

“The separation of the two businesses means each can operate independently and focus on being the best in their respective fields. The recapitalization has given us a strong balance sheet and an injection of funds which allows us to forge ahead with our plans to expand our three consumer brands of Peppers, Mantra and Breakfree with confidence,” Mr East said.

Mr East said the renaming to Mantra Group was part of a logical progression for the company.

“Stella Hospitality Group was built on nine hotel brands amalgamated into three core brands of Peppers, Mantra and BreakFree. Peppers and BreakFree were existing successful brands while the Mantra brand was developed by our team and is now the fastest growing hotel brand in Australia,” he said.

“It is a name that has had great exposure. It represents the best in home-grown skills and service and is synonymous with integrity and professionalism which are the key values that our company is built on.”

Mantra Group will operate the strong and distinct consumer Peppers, Mantra and Breakfree brands with a clear mandate for future growth. There are currently 140 resorts, retreats, hotels and apartments throughout Australia and New Zealand.

“In the future, we plan on increasing the size of the Peppers, Mantra and BreakFree portfolios as well as new initiatives like introducing the Peppers product into a CBD environment,” Mr East said.

Mantra Group employs more than 3500 staff. “As we embark on this exciting new phase in our business, we will be drawing on the considerable strengths of our proven systems and our great team of tourism industry leaders,’’ Mr East said.