THE Gleneagles Hotel has seen a near £1 million rise in profits for the financial year prior to its hosting of the Ryder Cup.
Annual accounts just filed at Companies House for the five-star luxury resort near Auchterarder, Perthshire, show turnover rose 12 per cent from £38.8m to £43.6m in the 12 months to June 30, 2014.
That underpinned growth in operating profit from £852,000 to almost £1.9m.
That came even though operating costs increased from £38m to £41.7m as a result of higher raw material prices, greater spending on marketing and staff costs going from £15.6m to £17.1m. Average staff numbers in the year rose from 869 to 896 with full-time staff up from 619 to 634.
Gleneagles owner Diageo is reportedly mulling selling the hotel after receiving a number of enquiries following the Ryder Cup in September. The price tag is believed to be around £200m.
On the latest financial performance David Kemp, Gleneagles finance director, said: "General economic conditions continued to be favourable."
Mr Kemp pointed out the period did not include the Ryder Cup but there had been a benefit from greater levels of activity in a number of areas in the run up to the event.
Mr Kemp said room volumes had grown 10 per cent during the year as a result of a higher number of stays from leisure guests along with an upturn in corporate and celebration events.
Along with that food and beverage revenue showed a 13 per cent increase year-on-year.
There was also greater golf revenue as a result of more rounds being played and higher spending in retail outlets.
Mr Kemp said the profit rise was particularly pleasing as there had been infrastructure investments ahead of the Ryder Cup along with drainage works on the King's and Queen's golf courses.
He said: "The higher volume of golf rounds reflects the excellent condition of all three of our championship golf courses.
"The year also saw the completion of our £5m investment in the Club redevelopment. Residents are enjoying this new facility and we are seeing an increase in interest across individual and corporate memberships."
The business received a £2.3m dividend from property development subsidiary Gleneagles Resort which pushed pre-tax profits to £4.2m, compared to £262,000 in the prior year.
Directors' remuneration was up from £497,000 to £507,000 with the highest paid seeing their pay package increase from £290,000 to £295,000.
The accounts also note a dividend of £41.8m which Gleneagles paid to its shareholder, Diageo
The greater profile the resort has seen from its hosting of the Ryder Cup is expected to help the business grow further in the coming years.
Mr Kemp said: "In the current year to 30 June, 2015, we are continuing to see an upturn in trading levels. Undoubtedly, Gleneagles has benefitted, and will continue to benefit, from the profile brought by the Ryder Cup, but the ongoing business improvement is underpinned by our track record of investment across the resort, our focus on quality guest relationships, and our determination to build upon our leading reputation for great service and hospitality."
The European team beat the United States 16.5 points to 11.5 to retain the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article