Trendy Cape Town restaurant under new ownership

ONE of Cape Town's most popular restaurants, Five Flies, situated in the heart of the city's financial and legal district, has a new owner. Alex van Nes, general manager for the past three years, has bought the property following a management buyout made earlier this year by former owners, the Amsterdam/Madrid based NH Golden Tulip Hotel group, that wanted to focus on its core business, namely hotels rather than restaurants. "It was never our intention to sell Five Flies, but in the past five years, our company has grown from seven hotels and four restaurants in three countries to 233 hotels and four restaurants in 16 countries, " said Johan Agricola, managing director of NH Golden Tulip Hotels South Africa. He said the group did see growth potential in the South African hotel market and was hoping to add to its existing portfolio of two owned and managed hotels in the Western Cape, namely the Golden Tulip The Lord Charles and Astron Hotel Plettenberg Bay. (Miguel de Sousa)