TraveLodge Net Up 2.5%, New Chairman Says

Citing higher occupancy rates and the success of its new Viscount Hotels subsidiary, TraveLodge International Inc. on Wednesday reported increased sales and earnings for the year ended Oct. 31.

Net income for the year reached $8.8 million, up 2.5%, while sales rose 12% to $105.5 million.

The company said earnings improved through “higher occupancies and the impact of Viscount Motor Hotels,” the TraveLodge subsidiary that opened last year to attract a more upscale clientele than the modestly priced TraveLodge chain.

“We expect the 1985 (fiscal) year to show further profit improvement,” TraveLodge Chairman Bernard F. Combemale said in a prepared statement.

First Public Statement

It was Combemale’s first public pronouncement as TraveLodge chairman since he quietly took over from Roger Manfred, who quietly resigned as chairman in October.

Manfred resigned because he “was tired of traveling” between TraveLodge’s San Diego headquarters and the Westbury Hotel in New York, the headquarters of Trusthouse Forte Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of London’s Trusthouse Forte Ltd. that owns 96% of TraveLodge.

Manfred also resigned as chairman of Trusthouse Forte Inc., although he remains a director.

Officially, Manfred, a transplanted Australian who joined TraveLodge in 1968, resigned to “pursue other interests,” according to a company spokesman. Manfred could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Combemale is past president of Inca Management Inc., an investment advisory firm in New York. He is the former chief executive of Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers (SBM), principals in several hotels, restaurants and recreational facilities in Monaco.