Troubled Loch Lomond Golf Course to cut 35% staff
published this on 9:12 pm, Thursday, 15th October, 2009Business| Community News| Golf| Tourism activities | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
At the end of October 2008, Lyle Anderson, owner of the stratospherically upmarket Loch Lomond Golf Course (£75,000 joining fee and £3,250 pa annual subscription), after being unable to renegotiate debts, asked the lender, then HBOS, to take over the running of the club.
At the time the club’s debts were thought to be around £100 million. It’s annual loss had quadrupled in 2008 to over £19 million.
Bank of Scotland then appointed business recovery specialists Marotta Gund Budd & Dzera (MGBD), who put the club on the market for a reputed £100 million. MGBD have since had a management team running the club, deciding earlier this year to close the club for the winter months when usage is lighter. Whether the lack of access resulting from this move will result in lower joining and annual feed is not yet known.
It was made known today that the Club is now to lose 35.7% of its staff, dropping 50 from the current 140. Staff were contacted earlier this week to let them know of this and the management team is hoping to avoid compulsory redundancies.
At the time that the club was put on the market it was thought that Leisurecorp, a subsidiary of Dubai World and the new owner of another of Scotland’s major golf courses, Turnberry in Ayrshire, were interested in acquiring the Loch Lomond course.
Almost on the heels of this, of course, came the fall of Lehman Brothers, the domino collapse of the banks and the worldwide recession. Turnberry itself has had a tough year and, given the state of the market, it cannot be surprising that no one has yet offered the asking price for the club.
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