Indian Hotels is embarking on a master-branding strategy to leverage the equity of its 114-year-old heritage brand, Taj.

Under this plan, the company is upgrading all 58 hotels under its Vivanta and Gateway brands, and moving them to the Taj brand.

Currently, Taj Hotels caters to the luxury segment while Vivanta and Gateway hotels are pegged as upscale and premium brands, respectively.

These hotels will now be divided into four sub-categories — hotels, palaces, resorts and safaris — under the Taj brand, depending on the location and nature of the properties.

With a new brand architecture in place, Indian Hotels is reverting to its pre-2010 strategy of a single Taj brand. The company’s budget hotel brand Ginger will, however, not be part of the new scheme of things.

“With this new brand architecture, Taj is going back to its roots. It was a tough decision to move our other brands, but we took a bold step as a master-branding strategy was needed at this stage with global competition catching up,” Rakesh Sarna, CEO, Indian Hotels, said.

Chinmai Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, Indian Hotels, added: “We will use the capex of ₹1,500 crore, which is already being used to renovate our existing properties, for the new brand architecture.”

For instance, the Taj Gateway in Nashik will need to be upgraded as it will migrate to the Taj Resorts brand. “Properties such as Taj Vivanta in South Mumbai would probably go back to its original name of Taj President,” added Sharma.

Indian Hotels has been facing rough weather with international rival Marriott emerging as the country’s largest hospitality company, beating the Taj in terms of the number of rooms.

IHCL had reported a consolidated net profit of ₹92.98 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016 compared to ₹13.31 crore in the same period last fiscal year.