THE company that runs luxury Perthshire hotel Gleneagles recorded a pre-tax profit of £505,000 for the year to the end of December 2017 after ploughing ahead with a multi-million pound refurbishment programme.

Gleneagles Hotels Limited, which has been owned by London-based hospitality business Ennismore since 2015, generated revenues of £51.2m for the year and incurred running costs of £48.7m.

While that gave an operating profit figure for the year of £2.5m, the firm’s pre-tax profit was reduced by a £1.4m payment to service the interest on £71.4m worth of loans taken out during the year.

Of that, £66.4m is a term loan secured over the assets of the company that must be repaid within five years.

It is understood that the debt was taken on to pay for the refurbishment works, which finance director David Kemp said in the company’s accounts would “further enhance Gleneagles’ position as a ‘glorious playground’ at the heart of the Scottish countryside”.

“Our multi-million pound refurbishment programme is continuing with the recent opening of our Little Glen creche and Birnam Brasserie, along with further refurbishment of the hotel’s room stock,” he said.

The refurbishment is seeing the business work with a range of Scottish designers, including David Collins Studio, Timorous Beasties, Macaulay Sinclair and Goddard Littlefair.

In the previous reporting period, which covered the six months to the end of December 2016, the firm made a pre-tax profit of £6.3m on turnover of £27.6m, giving a margin of 23 per cent.

The company’s pre-tax profit margin for 2017 was 1%.