Despite running at a profit, Llangollen Hotels' four freehold hotels - The Wild Pheasant, Bryn Howel and The Chainbridge, all in Llangollen and Bodidris Hall at Llandegla near Wrexham - were taken over by KPMG on 8 July after its parent company Global Investments Group became unable to keep up with debt payments.
KPMG will run all four as a going concern until new owners are found. All 112 employees have kept their jobs.
David Costley-Wood, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said he was confident buyers would be found for the countryside hotels and blamed over-expansion by its parent company for the situation.
“The Global Investments Group expanded rapidly into a range of leisure businesses and built up substantial debt in the process. The business is now no longer able to make payments as they fall due, necessitating the appointment of administrators," he said.
Leasehold hotels
Two of the group's three leasehold hotels - The Anchor in Ruthin and The Chester Bridge in Chester - have also remained open for trading. The third, the Wynnstay Arms in Wrexham, was closed by Llangollen Hotels' directors before the group went into administration, making 36 members of staff redundant.
Colliers International’s Manchester office has been appointed by KPMG to market the properties.
“This is a great opportunity for a hotelier or investor to acquire these hotels of supreme character which are trading well and are being offered as a group or individually," said Neil Thomson.
Global Investments Group
Global Investments Group, also operator of three children’s soft play centres and a wine bar, was run by Stephanie Booth and her husband.
Following the company's move into administration, Booth, who appeared in the BBC Wales series Hotel Stephanie in 2009, told the BBC the company had been unable to pay a £900,000 VAT bill on time, because a bank loan had fallen through. A request to HMRC for more time to pay the bill was denied, leaving no option but to call in administrators.