The company which runs the up-market Ickworth Hotel within the National Trust’s Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds has changed hands in a management buy-out deal.
The Luxury Family Hotels brand and five of its sites, including Ickworth, have been acquired for an undisclosed sum from Patron Capital, which acquired the business six years ago in a deal valued at around £30m.
Nigel Chapman, who is chief executive of Luxury Family Hotels and will continue to play an active role in its future development, in conjunction with the directors, said: “These are exciting times for Luxury Family Hotels.
“We are looking forward to further developing and enhancing our collection of individual family hotels for the next generation of families to enjoy. In the meantime, it is very much business as usual, with the five hotel teams preparing for a busy last quarter of 2017.”
Besides the Ickworth, the buy-out includes Woolley Grange near Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, New Park Manor near Lyndhurst in Hampshire, Moonfleet Manor near Weymouth in Dorset and Fowey Hall in Fowey, Cornwall.
The Polurrian Bay Hotel, in Mullion, Cornwall, which is separately owned, will continue to trade under the Luxury Family Hotels brand “for the foreseeable future”.
However, Patron Capital has retains the Thornbury Castle Hotel, near Bristol, which was once home to Henry VIII and his new bride Anne Boleyn in 1553.
Camil Yazbeck, partner and investment director of hospitality at Patron Capital, said: “At Patron, we believe in backing management teams and, having developed the Luxury Family Hotels brand, invested in the hotels and staff and improved the estate, we are pleased to sell this portfolio of five hotels. We would like to thank the teams for their work and commitment and we wish them every success for the future.”
Ickworth House was previously the home of the Hervey family, including John Hervey, the 7th Marquis of Bristol, before passing to the National Trust in lieu of death duties.
The hotel, in the east wing of the building which is leased from the National Trust, opened 15 years ago and was previously part of von Essen Hotels which went into administration in 2011.
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