‘I didn’t buy it just as a folly’
‘EVOLUTION not revolution’ are the words billionaire Steve Lansdown prefers to use as he looks ahead to new, exciting times as owner of La Grande Mare Hotel.
Lansdown, estimated to be worth £1.72bn and a Guernsey resident for the best part of 10 years, bought the four-star hotel on New Year’s Eve for an undisclosed price.
The majority shareholder in both Bristol City football club and Bristol Rugby said yesterday that negotiations to buy the hotel from the Vermeulen family had been going on since the autumn.
He was quick to say there would be no staff redundancies.
‘It’s business as usual. I met with them all yesterday [1 January] and hopefully enthused them.
‘The hotel will go through a transformation over the next couple of years because the time-shares which were in existence come to an end, and we will look at how we can maximise the accommodation return on the hotel from a business perspective, together with the golf club and the leisure club.
‘I didn’t buy it just as a folly.
‘Part of the reason is I wanted to do something with the golf course and the reality is it is a profitable business and we want to make it more profitable – make it a landmark property on the island.’
He said that no decision had been made whether to make radical changes to the building.
‘I don’t know, is the answer to that. I have got ideas that I would like to see happen and that may mean changing it structurally, but at this stage, no.’
‘My [Pula Investment Ltd] staff will go in and will work with the people there and see what we can do to add to it.’
Course changes afoot, Back Page
‘
