Activities

Shire Hotels is the owner and operator of a clutch of predominantly four-star hotels catering for both the leisure and the business markets. Its long-term aim is to operate a maximum of 20 hotels in the UK.

It is a division of independent family-owned brewer and pub operator Daniel Thwaites, which has been brewing beer since 1807. The Blackburn-based brewer already owned a number of small country hotels when it set up the separate hotel division in 1980, initially under the Shire Inns name.

Timeline

• 1980: Brewer Daniel Thwaites sets up a new hotel division called Shire Inns. Its first hotel is the 20-bedroom Millstone Hotel in Blackburn, Lancashire. It is followed by the Cottons hotel in Cheshire and the Oaks hotel in Burnley.
• 1985: Shire Inns opens its first new-build hotel, the North Lakes Hotel and Spa in Penrith, Cumbria. By 2005, five of its nine hotels are new-builds.
• 1990: The group opens the Aztec hotel in Bristol and the Solent hotel in Fareham, Hampshire.
• 1995: The five-star Stafford hotel becomes the group’s first London property. As a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World consortium, it is marketed separately from other Shire hotels.
• 2001: The company changes its name to Shire Hotels.
• July 2005: Shire Hotels buys the building next to the Stafford hotel in London for £10.5m. It plans to spend £12m adding extra bedrooms – including 26 luxury suites – to the hotel in a two-year project starting in 2006.

Operating data

In the year to March 2005, Shire Hotels increased net profit by £1.5m, or nearly 24% on the previous year. Food and beverage sales grew by £13m, or 5%.

Number of hotels: nine.

Most are four-star, except for the Stafford (five-star), Oaks hotel (three-star) and Millstone hotel (two-star).

Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Kettering Park Hotel & Spa, Kettering, Northamptonshire
Aztec Hotel & Spa, Bristol, Avon
Solent Hotel & Spa, Fareham, Hampshire
North Lakes Hotel & Spa, Penrith, Cumbria
Oaks Hotel, Burnley, Lancashire
Cottons Hotel & Spa, Knutsford, Cheshire
Millstone Hotel, Blackburn, Lancashire
The Stafford, London

Number of employees: 1,115 (full- and part-time)

Strategy

"To operate four-star business and leisure hotels with easy access from the motorway network and business conurbations."

Source: company information

Key directors

Managing director: Ian Harkness
Deputy managing director: Tony Spencer
Finance director: David Lowe
Marketing director: Jane Waterworth
Chairman: Ann Yerburgh

Contact

Colne Road
Burnley
Lancashire
BB10 2NG

Tel: 01282 414 141
Fax: 01282 833 648

E-mail: info@shirehotels.com
Website: http://www.shirehotels.com

Commentary

Shire Hotels initially set out to be a top three-star operator and then outperform its market niche.

Its continued investment in its portfolio and high standards of service and customer care have won it a number of awards. They include the AA Hotel Group of the Year 2003-4, the RAC Hotel Group of the Year 2004-5, and a Group Hotel of the Year Catey in 2004 for its French château-style Thorpe Park Hotel near Leeds.