Highlands hospitality group Turas Hotels has acquired Aviemore’s landmark Cairngorm Hotel, saying that it is the ‘final piece of the jigsaw’ in its plan for a ‘whole Highland’ guest offer.
The private purchase for an undisclosed sum adds the Cairngorm Hotel to the Turas Highlands portfolio alongside the Glen Mhor Hotel and Uile-bheist Distillery and Brewery in Inverness, the Seaforth Restaurant in Ullapool, and McKays Hotel in Pitlochry.
Turas, recently rebranded from J and R Group, has also got an existing foothold within the Cairngorms National Park itself, as owner and operator of the Boat Country Inn in nearby Boat of Garten.
So the Cairngorm Hotel, a 32-bedroom Victorian-style property, situated across from Aviemore’s train station, and already a well-established centrepiece of the tourist town’s main promenade, may well be the claimed ‘perfect fit’ for the group’s business strategy.
“The Cairngorm Hotel is an iconic building and Aviemore is now an all-year round destination within the A9 corridor,” said Turas Hotels co-director, Richard Drummond. “It fits exactly with the type of experience and location our group likes to offer.
“What we are acquiring is a solid business, well managed and well known, with an established team and that family feel which really resonates with our own approach.”
The Cairngorm Hotel has in fact has been under the same family ownership for three decades, until those owners, listed as WKW Partnership Limited, opened discussions with Turas Hotels five months ago due to imminent retirement and a desire to pass the business to ‘like-minded’ hospitality experts.
Following the sale, which was brokered by Christie & Co, the new owners said that they aimed to build on the success of ‘The Cairn’, while retaining its current strengths and staff. Current operations will run as they are, with the group looking to grow the business over time and to invest for the future.
Drummond’s fellow Turas director, Jon Erasmus, said: “We feel grateful that the Cairngorm Hotel owners came to us as people they could trust to look after the business, which has a really good reputation.
“It is tailor-made for us. As a group, we were missing that final piece of the jigsaw. We want to provide our guests with the whole Highland journey where they can stay, eat, drink and experience, in great locations.”
Turas Hotels recently announced an air-mile style customer Rewards scheme where guests can exchange points for stays across other group hotels in Perthshire and the Highlands.
Consolidating their hospitality presence within the new structure would, Turas’ owners said, help to protect jobs.
“Hospitality has faced a lot of challenges from government policies, taxation and higher costs but joining up our group properties, now including the Cairngorm Hotel, gives us greater security through scale which will help us to preserve employment,” added Erasmus.
Tony Spence, associate director at Christie & Co, who managed the sale, commented: “We were delighted to be involved in this confidential sale process acting for the vendor, it also demonstrates that demand remains strong for such assets within the market.
“Our client can now retire from the trade however, in the hands of Turas Hotels, I am confident the business will go from strength to strength. We wish them every success.”
