JAMIE CARR: Southern Sun shines through clouds
Hotel group fights its way back to profitability
The tourist industry will have a major role to play if the local economy is to have any chance of recovering from its comatose state, creating a few jobs and getting a bit of wind in the sails of the ship of state. The past couple of years have thrown a toolkit of obstacles in the industry’s general direction, veering from total shutdown to civil unrest, micro-brained red lists to the endless misery of load-shedding, so it’s encouraging to see the occasional hint of recovery.
With occupancies at 46% in the first six months of the financial year, Southern Sun’s results weren’t a clarion call to get the corks popping on the Dom Perignon. But it’s a tribute to the group’s resilience that it’s still in the game, and even managed to sneak back to profitability with adjusted headline earnings of R17m. In October the group’s occupancies were up at 59.2%, and barring any further catastrophes the positive trend seems to be coming through in most sectors of its operations...
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