The ranking as the number one hotel brand is of very significant importance as Southern Sun moved up from 4th Place in the 2005 awards to 1^st Place in all the brand categories, making it the biggest move this year, across all the brand categories.  This is a highly competitive category, in which Southern Sun was given top honours with the second place being awarded to Sun International and third place to Protea Hotels.

“This is a remarkable achievement, and one where congratulations must go the Southern Sun marketing team, our external resources and to all hotel staff that worked very hard to make the re-brand of our hotel portfolio such a great success,” says Helder Pereira, managing director of Southern Sun.  “Southern Sun operates in a dynamic industry, and this award reflects the “Southern Spirit” of passionate and inspired staff, who through sheer hard work, and a dedication to providing our guests with exceptional personalized service, epitomizes our vision to be “Africa’s best hotel group by far”.  We are truly proud of the part that the entire team has played in winning this prestigious award,” concludes Pereira.

The Markinor/Sunday Times Top Brands Survey conducts this survey on an annual basis and it is the largest survey of its kind to date.  The Business-To-Business category is compiled from 400 respondents of the following calibre: CEOs, CFOs COOs, MDs and any other directors.  The sample is drawn from Matrix Marketing Business lists and the sample is representative of the South Africa industry profile.