Healthy demand boosts revenues at Surgeons' Hall

The commercial arm of one of Scotland's oldest institutions, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, has sewn up record revenues in its latest financial year on the back of a strong performance in events and hospitality.

Surgeons' Hall is eyeing 'even better financial results' after delivering record sales. Picture: TSPL

Surgeons’ Hall’s turnover jumped 20 per cent to £4.3 milion in 2015 compared with the previous 12 months amid increased capacity at the venue – putting on more than 500 events and catering for almost 1,600 covers.

Scott Mitchell, commercial director at Surgeons’ Hall, said the latest figures justified setting up the dedicated commercial enterprise team of the college ten years ago, as he added that the department was now “coming into its own”.

Surgeons’ Hall caters for conferences, weddings and other events across the college’s facilities, including the King Khalid building and the modern Quincentenary Conference Centre, created to celebrate the institution’s 500th anniversary, and 77-bedroom hotel Ten Hill Place.

Other boosts to its revenues in 2015 included the opening of the Prince Philip Building in May after a £1.5m restoration, as well as Café 1505 welcoming its first customers.

The college hosted its biggest ever medical conference during the year, 16 separate Christmas events, and welcomed 80,000 customers to a Festival-Fringe venue in August.

Mitchell pledged that the team “won’t be resting on our laurels and will keep innovating and evolving”.

He also said that the team were “all looking forward to 2016-17 and to delivering even better experiences to our customers and even better financial results”.