Crieff Hydro, Scotland’s oldest registered trading company, has announced that it has agreed terms to acquire two well-known Borders hotels from McMillan Hotels later this month.
The new acquisitions, Peebles Hydro (above) and the Park Hotel in Peebles offer the Company an opportunity to establish a presence in the Borders area, bringing the experience, expertise and ethos of Crieff Hydro to create a gateway hotel in this part of the country.
Plus – JV to manage four Freedom Hotels
In a separate deal, the business has kicked off a joint venture to manage a further four Hotels: three on Scotland’s West Coast and one in Harrogate. The moves will add over 400 bedrooms and £10M of revenue to the long-established business – consolidating its position as one of Scotland’s leading hotel operators.
The Yorkshire Hotel in Harrogate, The Isles of Glencoe Hotel & Leisure Centre, The Ballachulish Hotel and the Oban Caledonian will be run as a joint venture with the owner of these four properties as part of the expanding collection supported by Crieff Hydro.
Colin Johnston, owner of the four Freedom Hotels said, “Although I’ve owned these hotels for a number of years, the setup has never been quite right. I’m delighted to enter a new type of joint venture with the team at Crieff Hydro whom I have known for many years. Having been through the hands of a few operators, it will take time for these businesses to stabilise but I know they have great potential. This is about the long-term for me and for Crieff Hydro. In time, I am sure that the teams in the hotels, the customers, Crieff Hydro and myself will all feel really proud to be part of this story.”
Significant opportunity
Speaking about the moves, Chief Executive of Crieff Hydro, Stephen Leckie commented, “This is a significant opportunity to develop travel, tourism and leisure opportunities in some of the country’s most important tourist areas. Over the coming years, our approach will be to develop and enhance the existing facilities in these hotels and build on their individuality and personality. They are all very different from Crieff Hydro as a destination resort. In time, they will all share the same warmth of hospitality and independent thinking we have at Crieff.
Bringing together local elements
“Apart from investing to develop facilities, we’ll have a particular focus on bringing together all of the local elements. Engaging with partner businesses locally and understanding what local customers want from these hotels will be really important to us. These are great destinations and while we aren’t setting out to make these the most luxurious hotels in the area – we do want them to stand as real advocates for their villages and towns. What we are interested in is generating more new visitors to each of the areas.”
Crieff Hydro Managing Director John Jennett added, “Food quality is of signature importance at Crieff Hydro and in time we will bring the same ethos and approach that we have at Crieff Hydro to these hotels with an emphasis on quality, distinctive menus, local provenance and offering value for money.”
McMillan Hotels and Crieff Hydro are working closely to ensure the smoothest handover possible for customers and staff. The change in ownership will have no effect on the team working in Peebles Hydro; there will be no redundancies, nor will it affect any customers with existing bookings or gift vouchers.
Hotels that are the heart and soul of Scotland’s tourism
Stephen Leckie said, “The trade press is full of hotels that are based on uniform formulas that work brilliantly in the cities. Taking on a mixed bag of country hotels is hardly fashionable. But once you’re away from the cities, it’s hotels like this that are the real heart and soul of Scotland’s tourism product and tourism is increasingly recognised as being amongst the biggest economic drivers for the country.
“So for the sake of the prosperity of our own business and the wider tourism picture I believe we’ll make a success of these. I’m looking forward to working with the Tourism Partnerships, local businesses and suppliers to partner and promote local attractions, eateries, shopping experiences, history and heritage and effectively do all we can to add to the quality visitor experience.”
Part of the Company plans are to launch a Community Engagement programme in each hotel area, inviting local stakeholders to participate in developing the way ahead.
Banking moves to Santander
John Jennett added, “We’ve been working on these deals in a different transaction climate to the one we’ve been used to in the past. Whilst the approach is different, we have had a positive experience with most lenders and were delighted to get competitive offers from four major banks.”
The end result is that the company has re-banked from Lloyds (Bank of Scotland) to Santander both for the core business and to fund the acquisition and development of Peebles Hydro.
Careful investment planning
Stephen Leckie added; “Investment isn’t something that will happen overnight as it will need careful planning to get it right. What we do think can happen over the next few months is that we can bring a flavour of the service for which Crieff Hydro has become renowned and generate real momentum with our vision of what can be achieved in the longer term for the new hotels and tourism in the area.”
Jennett has been MD of Crieff Hydro since 2011: the first non-family member to take up the post in the business’ long history. His partnership with Stephen Leckie has seen the business defy industry trends and grow by more than 10% since then to more than £18M. The pair were recently listed by Caterer Magazine as being amongst the most influential figures in Scottish Tourism alongside names like Andrew Fairlie and Nick Nairn. Jennett was previously involved in the three west coast hotels now coming into the Crieff Hydro fold: as MD he built up the business in the 90’s before selling to Swallow Hotels in 2006.