Gordon Campbell-Gray to Invest in New Scottish Hotel Collection After First Takeover

Main Photo: The Pierhouse Hotel and Seafood Restaurant

Date: April 2019

Location: Port Appin, Argyll, Scotland

Name: The Pierhouse Hotel and Seafood Restaurant

No. of Keys: 12

Seller: Nick and Nikki Horne, who have owned the hotel since 2006. The Pierhouse began life as the residence of the Pier Master at Port Appin in the 19th Century. The pier was built to service the steam vessels travelling up and down Loch Linnhe, stopping off en route between Oban and Fort William with passengers and cargo.

They paid around £700,000 in 2006.

Buyer: International hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray is to develop and invest in hospitality opportunities around Scotland as he launches a new hotel collection to market.

The Wee Hotel Company has acquired The Pierhouse Hotel and Seafood Restaurant at Port Appin in Argyll as its first addition to the new group spearheaded by Gray.

Gray returns to his native Scotland after building up his own brand of Campbell Gray Hotels around the world over the last 12 years.

The Pierhouse is situated on the shores of Loch Linnhe and will be invested in over the course of this year in a bid to maintain and enhance the small hotel’s position.

The Wee Hotel Company will now look to invest in ‘special properties around Scotland’ and will be ‘quietly looking for suitable opportunities’ to add to portfolio.

The new collection will put emphasis on authenticity and the ‘magic of Scottish food and ingredients, hospitality and a warm welcome’.

Further acquisitions by The Wee Hotel Company will be announced in spring 2019.

Launching the Wee Hotel Company, Gordon Campbell Gray explained his decision to focus on home: “I’ve been lucky enough to live and work in many countries across the world but I really feel that few can rival the sheer magnificence of Scotland when it comes to scenery, food and drink, and I’m now ready to come home.

I live in Argyll and realised one day that I always had that going back to school feeling when I was leaving to head off on more travels, so I finally said to myself – then why am I leaving?”

He continued: “For several years I’ve wanted to come home to Scotland. The Wee Hotel Company is the result of this ambition and the start of an exciting new chapter in my life.”

Alongside owning and managing hotels open and under development in Beirut, Malta, Bahrain, Liberia, Amman and Zurich, under the Campbell Gray Hotels banner, he also manages the Machrie, which opened last year on the Isle of Islay on the west coast of Scotland.

Price: Undisclosed

THPT Comment: Interesting circle for Gordon Campbell Gray who started his hotel career at The Athenaeum in London’s Piccadilly, when it was owned by the Rank Organisation, launched the No. One Aldwych, opened and ran hotels in Beirut and the Caribbean and has now returned to his native Scotland.

First Seen: The Caterer

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