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By Ian McConnell
ENTREPRENEUR Robert Kilgour’s Dow Investments is acquiring loss-making Ayrshire care home Malin Court from a charity chaired by tea-cake magnate Sir Boyd Tunnock in a £1.1 million deal.
Mr Kilgour says he has no plans to reopen the hotel within Malin Court, which is situated on an 11-acre site close to the Trump-owned Turnberry golf course.
Dow is 99%-owned by Mr Kilgour with the rest held by his family. It holds investments including 85% of Renaissance Care, which will operate Malin Court. The 32-bedroom care home, which will be the 16th run by Renaissance, has been owned by the Malin Housing Association elderly care charity, which Dow noted had been chaired by Sir Boyd for the last 40 years.
Sir Boyd said: “Malin Court was founded by my good friend Niall Hodge in 1971 and I took over the reins 40 years ago when Niall passed away. Malin is a truly unique care home which I have been proud to be a part of.”
Malin Court has around 50 full-time and part-time staff, Dow noted, and Mr Kilgour said no redundancies were planned. Dow said there were 23 residents at Malin Court. It noted the care home was registered for 40 residents but that, on re-registration by the Care Inspectorate, this would be reduced to 32.
The hotel has 18 bedrooms on the building’s first floor. Mr Kilgour plans to examine how this space could be converted to care-home use. Noting the hotel “closed at initial lockdown and has never reopened”, Mr Kilgour said: “Most of the hotel staff were initially furloughed and then they gradually left or were made redundant by the current owners.”
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He added: “Malin Court is currently loss-making and we obviously plan to turn it round asap (as soon as possible) by increasing occupancy. Later on, we might look at the possibility of creating a care village on the site subject to planning and perceived demand at the time.”
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