Sheen Falls to check in for €10m-plus upgrade

IT’S five years since a consortium led by British hotelier Nigel Chapman picked up Sheen Falls Lodge, the five-star hotel in Kenmare.

He told me that the hotel, pictured, was “on its knees” when they bought it but that it has enjoyed growth year-on-year, helped in part by what he called a “gentle” refurbishment, which included the addition of a couple of suites.

But some less gentle work is on the way. Chapman said that he has been working on expansion plans for the hotel for some time and expects to submit them for approval shortly.

The plans will grow the 68-room premises in to a 100-bedroom hotel, while a second restaurant will be added. There are also plans to upgrade the leisure facilities. Chapman said that the investment would be between €10m and €20m.

The decision to go ahead with the investment follows a strong 2017 which came in above budget targets and delivered revenues and profits at their highest level since 2007. Total revenue was up by 9pc on 2016, driven in part by higher room rates. Chapman said that the room rates were based on demand, as well as improvements at the premises.

When he and his backers bought the hotel, American visitors accounted for 20pc of guests. That proportion has now risen to 40pc and they come during the peak season, when rates are at their highest.

Despite the snow in March, the first quarter of this year was good. “We expect 2018 to be measurably better than 2017,” he said.

Chapman is married to an Irish woman and spent a year living in Youghal, Cork. He actually credits visits to Ballymaloe in the 1970s as the inspirations for a career in the hotels business.

“I stayed in Darina’s house as she did B&B in those days and kept going back and got to the stage that I wanted to try one of our own.” In 1989 he opened Woolley Grange in Bradford on Avon in England.

“It’s not a copy of Ballymaloe, but there is a lot of inspiration from it.

“Ireland has a lot of blame for me being in the hotel business,” he said.

COMPLAINTS are mounting about Cantec Office Solutions, the company behind smartphone retailer Click.ie which was recently put into liquidation.

The liquidation meant shops were shuttered and customers have been left waiting to get their hands on phones and iPads that were left in for repair. People need their devices for work, school, etc so one can imagine the frustration involved.

A creditors’ meeting held a couple of weeks back was a rather raucous affair to say the least, as directors Umar Anwar and Shane O’Neill tried to explain themselves to irate staff, customers and suppliers. They said that the recent bad weather was a factor in their difficulties, as was deliveries going missing.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has been inundated with complaints, and told the Sunday

Independent that it has received 245 since December.

It’s engaging with the recently appointed liquidator to Cantec, experienced insolvency practitioner PJ Lynch, who said his work was ongoing. There’s a long way to go in this one yet.