By Ian McConnell
THE man who revived the Islay Hotel after it had been closed for two decades, reopening it in 2011, has expressed “delight” it has been bought by French luxury goods group LVMH, which owns the nearby Ardbeg whisky distillery.
Roland Worthington-Eyre, who is retiring, has sold the hotel in Port Ellen to The Glenmorangie Company, which operates the Ardbeg single malt distillery and is a subsidiary of LVMH, for an undisclosed sum. The sale was handled by property adviser Christie & Co. Ardbeg hailed the move as a “multi-million-pound investment”.
Mr Worthington-Eyre said: “The dream was to rebuild the Islay Hotel, which had been closed for 20 years, and I am really happy that was achieved. However, now it’s time for me to retire. I would like to thank all those who were involved in rebuilding, financing and running the hotel since it reopened in 2011, without whose dedication and loyalty it would not be the successful hotel it is today.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Did Tories think populist front would let them get away with anything, forever?
“I am delighted that LVMH want to take the Islay Hotel on the next stage of its journey, and we all wish them the very best of luck.”
The 13-bedroom hotel, which employs around 30 staff including seasonal workers, has been purchased as a going concern by The Glenmorangie Company, which plans to create “a world-class whisky and hospitality experience”.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Preposterous to claim protocol changes do not warrant robust reaction from EU
Gary Witham, hotels director at Christie & Co, said: “This was a rare opportunity to acquire an island hotel built to modern, high-quality standards, with sustainability at the forefront. The superb vision of the original developers has translated well for LVMH, a major luxury conglomerate, demonstrating the island’s position as a prime Scottish tourist location, and it’s fantastic that a local company operated by the group will be taking the hotel forward.
“The strong price achieved for the property shows the strength of buyer appetite for quality hotels in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.”
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 here