Brook Hotels saves 400 jobs by buying six ex Swallow Hotels

Kent’s Brook Hotels has bought six ex-Swallow hotels from administrators Ernst & Young, safeguarding 400 jobs.

The package deal for an undisclosed sum was completed early this week and takes Brook’s portfolio to 14 properties.

Brook said it would be spending a “substantial” amount upgrading its newly acquired hotels to the four-star standard of its existing estate.

Managing director Umesh Ummat said: “This acquisition is very significant to the continuing expansion of the group.”

The hotels included in the deal are the Beverley Arms in East Yorkshire; Crabwall Manor hotel, Chester; New Bath hotel in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire; Bank House hotel and golf club, Worcester; Kingston Lodge hotel, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey; Whitehall hotel in Dunmow, Essex.

London and Edinburgh Swallow Group called in the administrators on 15 September after admitting increasingly heavy losses.

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By Chris Druce

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