Activities

Legacy Hotels & Resorts is a hotel and leisure management services company that operates within the branded and non-branded three- and four-star hotel market.

Legacy has built up a reputation among owners and financial institutions for business recovery, turnaround and repositioning. It combines the advantages of a hotel- and local-market-specific approach with the disciplines and scales available to a group. Its flexible-term partnership philosophy encourages input from the hotel owners to align the objectives of both parties.

The group was founded in 2005 with the acquisition of three former Swallow hotels by two former Macdonald Hotel directors. Andy Townsend was the managing director of Countrytown Hotels (a division of Macdonald Hotels) and Jim Gordon was Macdonald’s commercial director.

Timeline

• September 2005:  Legacy Hotels & Resorts starts trading with the Bramhall County hotel in Stockport, the Hotel de la Bere in Cheltenham and the Falcon hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon.  These initial three properties were purchased from Corus Hotels in a deal in the region of £18.5 million.
• October 2005:  Legacy signs a long term agreement with for to provide a dedicated central reservation service for voice and web bookings from it’s base in Droitwich Spa.
• December 2005:  Legacy is granted the management contract for the Chesterfield hotel in Chesterfield and the Oaklands Country House hotel near Grimsby.  Both properties were previously managed by Country Town Hotels, a division of Macdonald Hotels..
• March 2006:  Legacy ceases to manage the Hotel de la Bere following its acquisition by Nexthold, which leases the property to Folio Hotels.
• July 2006:  Legacy signs a management contract for its first Welsh property, the Wild Pheasant hotel in Llangollen, Snowdonia.  
• October 2006:  Legacy signs a management contract for the Aston Court hotel in Derby, which had previously been leased to Swallow Hotels..
• November 2006:  Legacy Hotels & Resorts Limited agrees the management contract for two hotels formerly leased to Swallow Hotels - the Rose & Crown hotel in Salisbury and the Springfield hotel in Gateshead.  
• January 2007:  Legacy takes on the management contract for its first pub. The 10,000 sq ft Symphony Bar is a student bar in Liverpool.
• April 2007:  Legacy ceases to manage the Bramhall County hotel following a transaction with Sunrise Living to demolish the property. 
• April 2007:  Legacy’s management of the Wild Pheasant hotel ceases following its acquisition by Lloyds Hotels. The move leads to the creation of Legacy’s ‘associate marketing partners’ in which Legacy pledges to handle the sales, marketing and distribution of three hotels in Llangollen - the Bryn Howell hotel, the Chainbridge hotel and the Wild Pheasant hotel.
• May 2007:  Cosmopolitan Hotels joins Legacy as an ‘associate marketing partner’ representing the Erskine Bridge hotel and the Normady hotel, both in Renfrewshire.
• August 2007:  Legacy ceases to manage the Symphony Bar following its acquisition by Korova Negresco. The Diplomat hotel in Felinfoel, South Wales, joins Legacy as an ‘associate marketing partner’ under the Best Western banner.
• August 2007:  Work starts on a £2.5m complete refurbishment and repositioning of the Legacy Falcon hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• September 2007:  Legacy starts to represent the Hotel Cortijo Salinas in Ronda, Southern Spain, as an ‘associate marketing partner’.
• November 2007:  Legacy takes over the management of the Royal Victoria hotel in Llanberis, which was previously managed by The Real Hotel Company under the Quality hotel banner.
• December 2007:  Legacy starts the interim management of the Abbey hotel in Tintern following it’s transfer to administration. The hotel is sold to new owners in February 2009.
• December 2007:  Work starts on the complete refurbishment and repositioning of the Legacy Rose & Crown hotel in Salisbury.
• January 2008:  Legacy wins the management contract for the Botleigh Grange hotel in Southampton, which was previously privately operated under the Best Western banner.
• March 2008:  The Legacy Falcon hotel is relaunched as a four-star venue.  
• April 2008:  The Legacy Rose & Crown hotel is relaunched as Salisbury’s only four-star property following a £600,000 development.
• July 2008:  Legacy expands its operations and support services with its relocation to new offices in Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire.
• October 2008:  Legacy signs a management contract to operate the Hampshire hotel in St Helier, Jersey.  The group also opens its first new-build property with the development of the 75-bedroom Legacy Preston International hotel in Preston city centre with Liverpool-based developer BPS Developments.
• January 2009: Legacy resigns its management contract with the Springfield hotel in Gateshead which is closed pending a disposal under instruction with its bank.
• June 2009: Legacy signs three-year management deals for two Niche hotels - the Royal Hotel Cardiff and Wyck Hill House Hotel & Spa near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire - which had fallen into administration in January.

Operating data

Number of fully-managed properties: 11
Number of associate marketing properties: 8

Number of employees within the fully managed properties as at February 2009:  500.
Value of assets under management: £50m

Fully-managed hotels
The Legacy Botleigh Grange hotel - Southampton
The Legacy Royal Victoria hotel - Llanberis (Snowdonia)
The Legacy Falcon hotel - Stratford Upon Avon
The Legacy Chesterfield hotel - Chesterfield
The Legacy Aston Court hotel – Derby
The Legacy Oaklands hotel - near Grimsby
The Legacy Rose and Crown hotel – Salisbury
The Legacy Preston International hotel – Preston
The Legacy Hampshire hotel – St Helier
The Legacy Royal hotel - Cardiff
Wyck Hill House Hotel & Spa - near Cheltenham

Associate marketing partners
The Wild Pheasant hotel - Llangollen
The Chainbridge hotel - Llangollen
The Bryn Howel hotel - Nr Llangollen
The Diplomat hotel - Llanelli
The Erskine Bridge hotel - Erskine
The Normandy hotel – Renfrew
The White Hart Inn, Chalfont St Giles
Hotel Corjito Salinas - Malaga, Spain (Alliance partner)

Strategy

“We are creating a dynamic new business that develops the potential of each individual asset while benefiting from the structure and support that a dedicated management company can offer. We are targeting under-developed off-market properties where the business can be enhanced to build equity value. Our portfolio will be a combination of managed, leased and owned properties, predominantly within the three- to four-star market.”

Source: Andy Townsend, Caterersearch 8 February, 2006

Chief executive

Andy Townsend

Key directors

Founding director: Andy Townsend
Director of human resource and development: Helen Parrett
Finance director and founding director: Jim Gordon
Group property director and founding director: John Robertson
Director of hotel sales: Juliet Hayes
Operations director: Kevin Skeet

Contact

3 Henley Court
Prince Harry Road
Henley-in-Arden
Warwickshire
B95 5BA

Tel: 0870 832 9911
Fax: 0870 832 9912

E-mail: teena.giles-moore@legacy-hotels.co.uk
Website: http://www.legacy-hotels.co.uk