Martin R. Smura is leaving Kempinski Hotels after about 18 months as CEO, according to sources, due to differences regarding strategy between Smura and the company’s supervisory board regarding Kempinski’s planned expansion, with strategic partner 12.18 Group, of 7Pines Kempinski, a luxury lifestyle hotel concept announced in October 2019.
“He did not give in and remained true to his line,” sources said. As of this writing, the company had not confirmed Smura’s departure.
At the end of November, three of Kempinski’s hotels were represented in the top 10 of best hotels in Germany, according to one ranking. Conflicts about cooperation with Dusseldorf, Germany-based investment specialist 12.18 Group simmering, with Smura wanting to bring the 7Pines chain on a growth course and the supervisory board setting conditions that the CEO did not want to implement.
Rolf Westermann is editor-in-chief of AHGZ, Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung, based in Stuttgart, Germany.
As one of his first official acts after taking office in mid-2019, Smura presented a plan to join forces with the 12.18 Group; long-term, up to 20 hotels were to be launched with the dual 7Pines Kempinski brand, including a hotel in New York. In May of this year, the brand alliance had started with a luxury resort in Ibiza, which was rebranded as 7Pines Kempinski. Other planned hotels included Fleesensee Castle on the Mecklenburg Lake District and Roxburghe Castle in Scotland. And with a contract that has been under negotiation for months and was most recently on hold, the expansion was to continue.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based company has been moving from leadership crisis to leadership crisis for years. Since the departure of President and CEO Reto Wittwer, the company has had turbulent years. From 2015 to 2016, there were allegations of corruption, a lawsuit, a countersuit, replacement of the heads of the executive and supervisory boards, and Wittwer’s complete rehabilitation. In AHGZ, Wittwer later said, “No one can take away from me that I turned a bankrupt company into a respectable one.”
Then came CEO Markus Semer, who had to deal with strong competitive pressure, including from the owners. At the end of 2017, it was announced that the group’s former Berlin parent, the Bristol Hotel, was parting ways with Kempinski. After that, the three properties of Broermann Hotels & Resorts were lost, including the Atlantic in Hamburg. Wittwer took over the Kempinski Hotel Ajman of his former employer in the United Arab Emirates with his company, Smart Hospitality Solutions. Other properties followed. Smura replaced Semer in the summer of 2019.
Smura has held executive positions in operational hotel management and at corporate level on five continents. For 15 years, he worked for the Intercontinental Hotels Group, including as director of operations in Central, Eastern and Western Europe. At age 28, he was once the youngest GM there, and at 30 he was the youngest regional GM. He held numerous supervisory board positions, was a member of the supervisory board of Azimut Hotels, Russia’s largest hotel chain, and chairman of the board of Adlon Holding.
Before Kempinski, Smura was head of the supervisory board of Dirk Iserlohe’s Cologne-based Dorint Group, which at the time had around 50 hotels in Germany and Switzerland and an annual turnover of around 290 million euros with 3,300 employees.
Only a few days ago it had become known that Kempinski wants to strengthen itself with three luxury houses of Dorint in Germany. The Parkhotel Bremen, the Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden and the Hotel Maison Messmer in Baden-Baden are to be sold to an Egyptian construction and hotel group and will be managed under the Kempinski brand in the future. However, the contract with the listed Egyptian Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) for a sales volume of around 140 million euros has not yet been signed and sealed. For Kempinski, this would have been a welcome addition in Germany. Whether this will happen now is questionable.
Dorint Supervisory Board Chairman Dirk Iserlohe commented: “I note the news with regret. I had the impression that Kempinski had developed well with Mr. Smura. Regarding the transaction, I assume that a deal, which is about to be closed, will not be burdened by a personnel issue and Kempinski will also continue to work professionally on a management contract that has been in preparation for months. I have not received any other news.”
Kempinski, which was founded in 1897 Geneva, is now majority-owned by the sheikhs of Bahrain after the change from the Thai royal family. Its portfolio includes 78 5-star hotels and residences in 34 countries.