Come 2028, the new EQ Phuket will rise at Phuket’s picturesque Kata coastal district, bringing oversized suites, pool villas and the island’s buzziest beach club along with it. This new resort development is a strategic joint venture between two hospitality names that have thrived in their country of origin and grown through the decades.
On one side is the ONYX Hospitality Group – Thailand’s premier management company for luxury hotels, resorts and serviced residences which has been in the scene for over 70 years, and is a component of the diversified Italthai consortium which also counts the legendary Mandarin Oriental Bangkok among its owned properties. On the other, the Equatorial Group which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and is the owner and operator of luxury lifestyle EQ Kuala Lumpur hotel, and other Equatorial hotels including one in Ho Chi Minh.
At the signing ceremony to formalise this historic team up between the two groups which took place at EQ Kuala Lumpur, the signatories were Yuthachai Charanachitta, CEO of ONYX Hospitality Group and Donald Lim, CEO of The Equatorial Group. The former shares that this new Phuket development occurred by chance, when Charanachitta and his wife happened to dine at EQ Kuala Lumpur’s Sabayon restaurant.
Charanachitta remembers being so impressed by the EQ Kuala Lumpur property that when he was eventually introduced to Lim by a mutual friend (interior designer Lai Siew Hong of Blu Water Studio who worked on both EQ Kuala Lumpur and ONYX’s Amari properties in Malaysia) he had already formed an opinion of EQ Kuala Lumpur as a unique hospitality offering.
“For me – from a guest perspective – I was impressed how the EQ brand, a local one, can really elevate and compete against the global hotel chains and brands, and that really sparked my thinking to sit down with Donald and calibrate, to see how we can be different from other global brands,” Charanachitta says, adding, “I believe that this partnership promises more flexibility to be competitive relative to the global brands, a combination I was searching for our next Phuket development.”
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Thus the new EQ Phuket – which is now in its project pipeline – will sit on a very choice plot of land that has been in ONYX’s possession for nearly half a century. The proposed EQ Phuket will sit on prime real estate that is both hilltop and beachfront, and will be realised with approximately 180 keys. “In Phuket most of the resorts are either hilltop or beach but hardly ever both,” Lim observes. “And on this property, the quality of sand is so nice it’s just unbelievable.”
For Lim, this partnership – with a projected total investment of THB2.5 billion – has been a natural progression of what the Equatorial Group has been doing with the EQ hotel brand. “We’ve always felt that we could do a pretty decent job, having had to compete against the largest brands in the market for the past 50 year,” Lim says.
“So even with the redevelopment of EQ Kuala Lumpur, it was a very, very deliberate process grounded in our own experience as hoteliers – which is then reflected in our concepts, approach and execution that appeals to consumers who value the stylishness of product, and at the same time, the very traditional notions of great service.”
With this new partnership, EQ Phuket will see the Equatorial Group managing the property while ONYX lends its expertise with back-of-house, and commercial functions, leveraging on its extensive networks within the long-haul market which has been a mainstay of Phuket’s guest profile. For Charanachitta, whose group also currently owns the Amari, OZO, Shama and Oriental Residence hospitality chains, the challenge was to ‘convince my board that we will not operate this property because we wanted to have a new brand like EQ in the market.’
Charanachitta points out that the land, which offers direct beach access, is in good form, ideal for multi-faceted, first-to-market F&B concepts which will be introduced into the EQ Phuket. This includees Japanese-themed dining courtesy of the Equatorial Group’s ties with global names such as ramen powerhouse Ippudo and tonkatsu by Maisen, as well as its ownership of Malaysia’s longest-running Japanese F&B establishment Kampachi.
“It will be something very unique,” Charanachitta says of the new EQ Phuket. “I cannot stress more how anxious I am to see this product because we are going to put all our input forward to make sure we combine our expertise to make sure the asset stands in the next 20 years,” he says.
Lim concurs saying: “the amount of synergy that our two groups have is tremendous, plus we all know about the legendary Thai hospitality which is a definite plus to the entire project.” For Lim, the partnership has already yielded new room categories for the Equatorial Group’s hospitality portfolio with the proposed oversized suites and pool villas offering longer-stay guests with plenty of living and recreational space. “It’s just really good fortune that we’ve come together and I’m excited,” he says, adding with a smile, “you can’t make this up.”
