Rezidor

Brussels, Rezidor SAS Hospitality announces the addition of a new lifestyle hotel brand bearing the name of the well-known fashion brand "Cerruti." The new brand joins Rezidor SAS' current four brands: Radisson SAS, Regent, Country Inn and Park Inn. Contracts for the first Cerruti Hotels have already been signed.

With the name Cerruti, Rezidor SAS Hospitality now enters the lifestyle hotel market with a brand that embodies a particular lifestyle. Cerruti's clientele are typically stylish, thirty-something urbanites, internationalists, and independent people who are familiar with fashion. They typically appreciate high quality, understand fine fabrics, details in construction, glamour and color, but want to enjoy it at the right price point. Cerruti's clientele are typically modern but classic, up-to-date but timeless, elegant and relaxed. Cerruti's market matches the new consumer market that Rezidor SAS hopes to attract with their new hotels of the same name.

Dynamic cities, outstanding hotels - Cerruti hotels will initially be developed in new and up coming areas of dynamic European cities. Rezidor SAS Hospitality has already signed the contract for the first Cerruti Hotel, opening in Brussels. Cerruti Hotels will be both new builds and conversions of historic buildings, but each hotel will possess a distinct architectural character and each will be characterized by an imposing entrance. They will range in size from 120 to 175 individually designed, highly-equipped rooms. The hotels' restaurants, called Cerruti Cafés, and Italian-style wine bars, called Enotecas, will play central roles in establishing the hotels as independent attractions within their own local market. Each Cerruti hotel will also offer two or three boardrooms, rather than conference facilities, along with select fitness and spa facilities.

Statement of style - For guests, the Cerruti hotel experience will be comfortable, visually and socially interactive, but also highly and quietly efficient. Exciting and confident, the design will challenge but not exclude, will be chic but not minimalist. It will set the scene as the place in town for people living or visiting the cities with its food, wine, style, design, music, light, art, people and rooms. The rooms will have the best of everything: from the size of the beds to the quality of the technology, the sound and vision, the build of the bathrooms, and the personal bars. The holistic experience will be priced with a transparency that engenders confidence and trust, loyalty and reward.

Kurt Ritter, president & CEO of Rezidor SAS Hospitality, said, "This is the fulfilment of one of my long-cherished dreams. Lifestyle hotels with a Mediterranean touch are not only very much to my personal taste but also ideally enhance our brand portfolio."

Gianluigi Facchini, chairman of Cerruti's executive board, is delighted with this new opportunity. "We are very proud that the Cerruti brand is the bearer of a new message and, in the near future, will be synonymous with perfect design and a modern lifestyle in the hotel business."

Rezidor SAS Hospitality is the master franchise holder for the Radisson SAS, Regent, Country Inn and Park Inn brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company currently operates 126 Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts with over 37 properties under development. The Radisson SAS portfolio now extends to 40 countries.

Rezidor SAS has held the Radisson master franchise since 1994. Regent, Country Inn and Park Inn joined the portfolio in 2002. Rezidor SAS operates two Park Inn Hotels: Berlin, Germany (1), Cape Town, South Africa (1), and 12 Country Inn Hotels located in Europe: in the United Kingdom (2), Germany (7), and Austria (2), including the recent opening at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France. There are currently two Regent hotels: Berlin, Germany (1) and Almaty, Kazakhstan (1). The company projects that it will have 700 hotels across all brands, operating within the EMEA region by 2012. Rezidor SAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the SAS Group.

Cerruti is part of the FINPART Group, which, among other prestigious brands, owns Frette, one of the most renowned names in the Hotel industry.

The Cerruti brand history started in 1881 in Biella with the foundation of the Textile industry. Over the years, it has become one of the world's most famous fashion brands. In 2001, the FINPART Group acquired 100% of Cerruti Holding.

Emily Easter
212-219-7560, ext. 204