GINGER BAGS THE ‘SCURRY’ AWARD FOR CREATING A NEW MARKET CATEGORY

Mumbai, 18 May 2010: Ginger Hotels, a chain of no-frills hotels from Roots Corporation Limited, has been awarded THE ‘SCURRY’ AWARD FOR CREATING A NEW MARKET CATEGORY at the LeapVault Change Leadership Awards 2010.Initiated by LeapVault, a premier Indian player in organization development consulting, training and recruitment, in collaboration with US-based Who Moved My Cheese, Inc., the awards focus on select leaders who broke new ground and paved the way to inspire millions to believe in their dreams.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Prabhat Pani, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Roots Corporation Ltd, said, “The Indian Hotels Company Limited worked with the late Prof. CK Prahalad to create an innovative, first-of-its-kind category of no-frills ‘Smart Basics’ hotels in India. In 2006, the company re-christened the ‘Smart Basics’ hotels to the stylish, warm and modern brand GINGER. Today, Ginger Hotels has emerged as the country’s largest chain of no-frills hotels with 21 operational properties, offering intelligently thought-out facilities catering to the changing lifestyle of the customer, at an attractive price. While the team at Ginger Hotels feels extremely gratified receiving the award, it also fortifies our resolve to continuously evolve the Ginger offering and continue to add value to our Customers.”

The jury for the awards consisted of eminent personalities from various fields - Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Government of India, Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj – Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg UTV, Mr. Kiran Karnik – Former President of Nasscom and Former Chairman of Mahindra Satyam, Mr. G P Gupta – Former Chairman of UTI and IDBI, Mr. Anupam Kher – Veteran Actor, Dr. S Parasuraman – Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Dr. Gita Piramal – Chairman, Ergo.

In recent months, Ginger Hotels has been honoured with ‘The Golden Star Award for Best Economy Hotel of the Year’ and ‘CNBC Travel Award for Best Budget Hotel of the Year’.

Currently, Ginger Hotels operates in cities like New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Goa, Haridwar, Bhubaneswar, Puducherry, Jamshedpur, Pune – Pimpri & Wakad, Nashik, Thiruvananthapuram, Pantnagar (Rudrapur), Agartala, Durg, Vadodara, Surat, Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore and Guwahati. Ginger plans to extend its pan-India presence by increasing the number of hotels to 30 by December 2010.