Owner of Glencoe Inn and Balmoral Arms sees major investment pay off as losses slashed

The Scottish hotels group that owns the likes of the Glencoe Inn and the Balmoral Arms has reported a sharp rise in turnover and narrower losses as it continues to rebound from the pandemic.

Crerar Hotels, which was founded by Paddy Crerar and owns seven establishments in some of Scotland’s most scenic locations, said turnover jumped to £14.46 million in the year ended March 26, 2022. That compared with just £5.49m the year before. Despite the challenges during the trading period brought by “stop-start” Covid restrictions, the firm invested close to £2m in the Isle of Mull Hotel and Spa and close to £500,000 in the Glencoe Inn, which became the first property in the portfolio to achieve an AA five-star rating.

While the group reported a pre-tax loss of £831,000, Crerar Hotel’s chief executive described this as a “significant improvement” on the previous year’s reported loss of £2m and said the business was on an upward trajectory. Chris Wayne-Wills said: “We are proud to reflect on a good year where we have demonstrated our commitment to strengthening our proposition by investing heavily in our high-quality portfolio. The benefits of our investment strategy are clearly on track. The hangover of the impact of Covid-19 continued to affect the industry’s ability to trade as normal. However, we have still emerged in a considerably stronger position than the previous year while committing some £4.72m to capital expenditure and £1.6m to remuneration to expand our teams. Our unwavering commitment to investment in our portfolio and our talent has put us in the best possible position for continued success and recovery.”