By Ian McConnell

CRERAR Hotels has formed a new partnership with an award-winning Scottish family butcher to “bring top-quality beef to the menu” across its seven properties.

The Scottish hotels group said John Gilmour Butchers, a third-generation family business which won two gold medals at the World Steak Challenge 2021 awards, would supply its four and five-star properties with Scotch beef. Crerar’s portfolio comprises the Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa, Oban Bay Hotel, Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa, Deeside Inn and Golf View Hotel & Spa in Nairn, as well as Thainstone House and The Glencoe Inn. The hotel company, founded by industry veteran Paddy Crerar, said John Gilmour Butchers is “sourcing prime cattle from Crerar Hotels’ Home Farm and its pedigree herd of slow-growing, grass-fed Lamermuir Luings”.

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Crerar declared John Gilmour Butchers uses “the skills and experience built up over almost 70 years of trading to produce the very best Scotch beef”. The hotels group noted the family butcher had won the gold medals for its grass-fed rib-eye and sirloin steaks, now available across Crerar properties.

Chris Wayne-Wills, chief executive of Crerar Hotels, said: “We aim to always show our guests the very best of what Scotland has to offer, so working with this family-run butcher to bring locally sourced Scotch beef to the table at each of our hotels and inns was a natural progression. We are particularly looking forward to expanding our restaurants’ offering to include native Scottish breeds.”

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Simon Gilmour, co-owner of John Gilmour Butchers, said: “This new partnership will allow us to continue to support local Scottish farmers and their surrounding rural communities, some of whom we have been working with for over 40 years.”