Hotel magnate Charles Forte dies in sleep

By Staff
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LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) Italian-born hotel magnate Charles Forte, who opened his first milk bar in 1930s depression Britain and built a hotel and restaurant empire spanning the world, died in his sleep today aged 98.

''He died peacefully at 7 a.m. this morning at his London home,'' said a spokeswoman for Rocco Forte Hotels, the company his son later created.

The milk bar was a concept imported from the United States and was a place where the young could socialise while lingering over non-alcoholic drinks and listening to the latest records.

The founder of Forte Plc, formerly Trusthouse Forte, never entertained any other career and created a multi-billion pounds empire employing many thousands of people across the globe.

Forte retained great pride in his Italian origins but as a naturalised British citizen he was almost aggressively English, sporting a deerstalker hat and tweed suit on country jaunts.

When Queen Elizabeth knighted him in 1970, the diminutive Charles Forte, just five feet four inches (1.63 metres) tall, dubbed himself ''the shortest knight of the year''. In 1982 he was made a life peer.

He was a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic and was personally presented with a special Papal Medal by Pope Pious XII.

Italy's ambassador to Britain, Giancarlo Aragona, described Forte as a much-valued bridge between Britain and Italy and expressed deep regrets at his death.

''His outstanding success, intelligence, engaging personality and, above all, his generosity were much appreciated by all. We, Italians, feel we have lost a great friend and somebody we were all proud of,'' he said.

Charles Forte was born of well-to-do parents in the Italian hill village of Monteforte Casalaticco on November 26, 1908, and was taken to Scotland as a child. At the age of 21 he was managing a family restaurant on England's south coast.

Five years later he opened the milk bar in the heart of London and began making profits with what he called a simple system of analysing every item of expenditure against income.

When World War Two came, he owned nine establishments in the centre of the capital and became known as ''Mr. Piccadilly.'' Expansion resumed after the war with the purchase of top London restaurants and hotels like the Cafe Royal and Waldorf.

In 1955 his company was awarded the first catering concession at London's Heathrow airport.

When Britain's first motorway was opened in 1959, Forte went into roadside catering and built up a chain of 23 service areas, the largest in the country.

Forte ascribed his success to hard work and healthy living. He said work should be serious but fun, and satisfaction rather than profit was his main motivation.

''I went into business to create a business, to do something of which I was proud. That was more important to me than financial rewards,'' he wrote in his 1986 autobiography.

In October 1992, at the age of 83, he finally gave up the company chairmanship and all executive responsibilities to Rocco who had succeeded him as chief executive in 1983.

By 1995 Forte Plc had 940 hotels with 97,000 rooms and more than 600 restaurants. But all was not well.

Rocco took the brunt of criticism for a slump in the company's profits during a long and deep British recession.

In 1996 the group was subject to a hostile takeover by Granada and Rocco was ousted.

Undeterred he immediately founded his own chain and now runs 12 exclusive hotels across Europe.

Reuters SI DB2148

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