HSBC backs Castle Hotels with £5m package for Atholl Palace
CASTLE Hotels has appointed HSBC to handle its Scottish banking, in a move that will see the bank providing a £5.5 million funding package for its flagship Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry.
The Dublin-based group is already receiving HSBC support for a £3m project to revive the Fisher’s Hotel, also in Pitlochry, after acquiring the premises two years ago.
Castle Hotels acquired the 108-bedroom Atholl Palace in October 2001, with an upgrade of its facilities boosting visitor numbers.
Anthony Kelly, director of business development at Castle Hotels Group, said: “We’ve gone through a period of significant growth over the past 12 months, and are looking forward to continui ng to attract l ei s ure, wedding and conference guests to Pitlochry, which we believe to be the most aesthetically beautiful town in Scotland.”
Mark Tate, HSBC’s head of commercial and business banking in Scotland, said the hotel g roup was “an outstanding, quality business with a very bright future”, and that the bank had been hugely impressed by Castle’s development of the Pitlochry hotels.
Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland, said: “Tourism is at the heart of the Scottish economy and the sector’s growth is critical to our country’s future.”
The Irish group also operates three hotels in Dublin, a hotel in County Mayo, one in Co Kildare, and one in Wales.