Investment plans using hydro scheme sale’s £1 million ‘pot’ shelved

Nearly £1 million earmarked for ambitious developments, including new shops and accommodation, at Nevis Range is now being used to “keep the company alive,” its chief executive said yesterday.

The £980,000 investment capital was the company’s share of the £5.4m sale last year of a hydro-electric scheme at the resort, which has been providing much of its power since 2017.

The scheme’s operating company, in which Nevis Range was the majority shareholder, was acquired by London-based Equitix lastNovember.

Nevis Range chief executive Chris O’Brien said: “We sold the hydro company last year to raise investment capital for a number of projects we wanted to do.

“One of the major projects we were looking at was to build a retail hub, with four shops in an arcade, at our base station, with a 20-bedroom accommodation block above it.

“We were going to build a soft play area and a creche, because it is part of our policy that we really want to encourage more women into senior leadership positions and we thought provision of childcare facilities would make that a much easier prospect.

“We are very fortunate that in our senior management team of five we already have two women in that team, but we are always looking for ways to increase that throughout the business.”

He added: “We thought that was going to be a silver bullet and an incredible project.

“Scottish ministers, councillors and the

Forestry Commission had all given support towards it.

“We are very sad that we are probably not going to be able to do that for the foreseeable future.”

As part of the sale of the hydro scheme Nevis Range secured a deal giving it lifetime rights to continue buying power at the same rate it had previously been paying.