CHANDIGARH: CITCO's Board of Director's applauded Chandigarh Industrial & Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) for surging ahead with exponential increase in its profit of 1835 lacs for the financial year 2007-08 by surpassing all previous records.

He was addressing a meeting held here Tuesday under the Chairmanship of UT Home cum Finance Secretary, Sanjay Kumar.

According to Managing Director, CITCO, Jasbir Singh Bir, this was possible due to Management's Strategic Planning and Progressive Renovation Initiative that it has helped CITCO to achieve excellent Financial Performance and all-round progress in all the units of the Corporation.  

Bir also informed that new horizons of opportunity have been unfolded by CITCO, which has provided high growth trajectory amply reflected in Corporation's track order of multiplying profit growth from Rs. 1400 lacs to Rs. 1835 lacs during last 2-3 years in an era of stiff competition in the Tourism Industry. 

He said the financial performance is significant as the Corporation has taken into account all its liabilities including new scheme of Leave Encashment, wherein CITCO has contributed corpus amount of Rs.100.00 lacs.  The profit this year is still higher than the previous years, even after offsetting huge additional payment in lacs to staff consequent upon adoption of the new Assured Career Progression Scheme (4, 9, 14 yrs.) adopted by Chandigarh Administration.

He said that excellent financial performance is attributed to the outstanding performance of CITCO's flagship Hotel Mountview which has generated cash profit of Rs. 11.19 crores on a turnover of Rs. 25.00 crores. Profit of 40% of the turnover of the hotel is at par with the benchmark of financial performance being adopted in the esteemed hotels in the private sector.  CITCO is re-ploughing its profits in the hotels to keep abreast of the cutting edge developments in the hospitality industry to be competitive as a major player of the Tourism Sector in Chandigarh.  Hence, CITCO has undertaken major initiative to renovate Hotel Mountview's exterior façade, reception/ lobby area and coffee shop and consequently Mountview would get ultra modern outlook with trendy interiors, modern furniture to meet the comfort level of its esteemed clientele. Already Hotel Mountview is the first hotel in Chandigarh to qualify for international standard certification ISO-9001/ISO-14001 which has helped the hotel to achieve high standards of operating parameters for better management.

Furthering his speech Bil told that hotel Shivalikview which is very popular with Corporate clientele, has witnessed an increase of 13.5% in its turnover increasing from Rs. 13.41 crores to Rs. 15.39 crores during the financial year 2007-08.  Correspondingly, the profits stood higher by 22% at Rs. 5.25 crores against Rs. 4.29 crores for the last financial year.

Hotel Parkview with average occupancy of 88% has also shown good results this year with turnover at 5.24 Crores and profit of 159 lacs.  The construction work of creating 66 additional rooms in this hotel is already underway.  On completion of the expansion project by year end 2008, it will propel Hotel Parkview to be largest budget hotel of 170 rooms in this region, he said.

The performance of Chef Lakeview continues to show an exemplary upward trend both in profits & turnover.  There is an increase in turnover of Rs. 405 lacs against last year turnover of Rs. 346 lacs.  The profit is higher by 18% at Rs. 178 lacs against the profit of Rs. 151 lacs achieved in 2006-07. 

According to Bir the sales of Baithak Kalagram has also increased manifold due to such innovative and novel concepts which have become special feature of attraction for the residents of the tri-city and tourists.

Bir told that CITCO has plans to diversify its operations in the petroleum sector and two new petrol stations shall be set up in the Southern Sectors with Auto LPG facility to facilitate the residents of heavily populated areas of Chandigarh,

“Societal responsibilities as a corporate philosophy of CITCO is high on its agenda to spread special moments of happiness amongst under privileged section of society without any material gain for the Corporation”, Bir added.