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Just spotted this via deertrackdoctor
A PETITION to wind up a Peebles hotel company, granted by a court in March, will not affect the operation of a cafe at the state-of-the-art mountain biking complex in the region’s most popular visitor attraction at Glentress Forest.That was the assurance yesterday from Claire Bony who, with her husband Olivier, are directors of GT Restaurants Ltd, which, on January 24 last year, was named as the preferred bidder by the Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) to run the cafe at Glentress Peel.
The firm, registered as a company the same day, was later awarded the contract under a 10-year lease.
In a press release at the time, FCS said of the firm: “This is a new Peebles company which has been set up by Claire and Olivier Bony, the owners of the Glentress Hotel. They already run a number of businesses including the hotel’s popular restaurant and self-catering units in Peebles.
“Their local presence, coupled with the hotel being situated at the entrance to the forest, has given them valuable experience of catering for the mountain bike and visitor market for a number of years.”
Announcing also that Edinburgh-based Alpine Bikes was the preferred bidder for the mountain bike shop at the £8.5million complex, FCS district manager Bill Meadows commented: “We have undertaken a very thorough, open and fair tender for commercial opportunities and I’m very pleased the process has produced two companies with many years of experience in the mountain bike and leisure market.”
Prior to setting up GT Restaurants Ltd, Mr and Mrs Bony were the named directors of Glentress Hotel Ltd, which was registered on March 28, 2006.
According to company accounts posted on November 3, 2010 – more than two months before the preferred status of GT Restaurants Ltd was announced – Glentress Hotel Ltd had, for the period up to March 31, 2010, liablities of more than £172,000, while its assets were £4,282.
On March 15 this year, a petition was presented to Peebles Sheriff Court on behalf of the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) craving the court to order that Glentress Hotel Ltd be wound up and a liquidator appointed.
The sheriff clerk’s office confirmed this week that the winding-up petition had, indeed, been granted.
Asked if this action against a company which had run the hotel cited in the preferred bidder announcement would have any impact on the operation of the Glentress Peel cafe, an FCS spokesman said this week: “The court action with Glentress Hotel Ltd is not an issue for us to comment on directly as we have no involvement in the running of the hotel. It is a commercial/private issue for the owners.
“The management of the Glentress Peel cafe is a separate commercial venture with us and GT Restaurants Ltd and it is business as usual there.
“We are enjoying a good working relationship with the tenants [GT Restaurants Ltd] and are continuing to work with them to provide a great facility at Glentress.”
Mrs Bony told us yesterday: “Glentress Hotel Ltd is a dormant trading company which has nothing to do with GT Restaurants Ltd and thus has no impact whatsoever on the running of the cafe or, indeed, the hotel, which is open for business as usual.”
Asked if Glentress Hotel Ltd, which is still listed as having a Companies House status of “active” on the companycheck website, had settled the liabilities listed in its 2010 accounts, Mrs Bony said: “I have no comment.”
Hmm. Concerning on many levels...
Too right!
Oh he said no comment. That's never good.
Without knowing all of the previous history of the Glentress Hotel, I don't feel I'm really in a position to comment. This bit seems quite important though...
“Glentress Hotel Ltd is a dormant trading company which has nothing to do with GT Restaurants Ltd and thus has no impact whatsoever on the running of the cafe or, indeed, the hotel, which is open for business as usual.”
Can't say I understand it all but I get the impression it won't have any effect on the cafe business?
Oops someone in FCs contracts department needs a refresher course in due diligence!
I hope it works out ok - i had a few pints with Olly last year and he was a top bloke - mad as a badger - but a top bloke
Whats everyones opinion on the new cafe and bike shop?
The Hub was awesome, so was sad to see it go
Maybe I'm being dim but does this have any impact at all on the current operations? Looks like there's nothing to the company but debt, the assets have gone elsewhere (Presumably to the current company?)
boltonjon - MemberWhats everyones opinion on the new cafe and bike shop?
I understand they serve an excellent can of worms 😉
Only been a couple of times (was a weekly customer at the Hub). Many issues not all the "owners" making. The last was ventilation. There seemed to be more kitchen smoke in the building than being vented outside.
Should be difficult not to make money there but I fear that a combination of factors will make it difficult.
Just think it's a bit sad really. Always wondered how the Hotel kept going. The outside certainly needed quite a bit of money spent on it and I had given up trying to sit on their veranda for coffee/beer as every time I went it was closed.
Should be a little gold mine really given the location but would guess a serious amount of money is required to make it so
Eh? I've got a booking with Glentress hotel. So whats happening with them? 😐
Oh dear money gone. You were looking to buy some Marzocchi forks recently weren't you? Could come in handy.
Hora, best check with the hotel directly re your booking. Was it cash or credit card that was used to pay as you may have some protection on credit if it is needed.
If the company that runs the hotel was wound up back in March then why has this information taken so long to have come out? Given that so many of STW ride/stay at GT I would have thought something would have been noticed before. As I recall the hotel had a Mothers Day special. Also if it had gone bust I would have thought that we would have comments from disgruntled staff or customers turned away from a locked door.
Mrs Bony told us yesterday: “Glentress Hotel Ltd is a dormant trading company which has nothing to do with GT Restaurants Ltd and thus has no impact whatsoever on the running of the cafe or, indeed, the hotel, which is open for business as usual.”
The suggestion from the above is that the hotel is now part of GT Restaurant or some other company.
What Druid said!!
I booked after March so I don't understand? No moneys been taken. It was just the card details.
Give them a call Hora to be sure but I reckon that all is well. I frequently stay away in hotels etc and they take card details on booking. No money is taken until I arrive. I guess if I failed to turn up then they would charge me for the room on the details I had left them.
The fact that you made the booking after March suggests even more that all is well.
I hope it works out ok - i had a few pints with Olly last year and he was a top bloke - mad as a badger - but a top bloke
Top bloke who set up a new company and wound up the old one so he didn't have to pay its debts? Perhaps I've misunderstood the OP though.
hora, it does say that the hotel is still running as usual.
We stayed there mid April, about twenty of us, seemed like business as usual. Very good at selling the local brew.
As Grum says, seems to be an example of the morally bankrupt practices that are almost 'encouraged' by the UK's business framework.
used the GH several times over the years, cheap but tatty really, but very convenient for the local trails
last years time the owner (is he always pissed?) just seemed to slate all the other restaurants in town and push for us to eat in ths hotel restaurant every night
i thought at the time - if i'm spending my cash on overpriced tourist food, i'll be the one deciding where it gets spent thanks very much (then went straight to the Prince of India in Pebbles for our dinner)
i'd still stay there again, but he does look like a 'lets wipe £167k of debt off' exercise
I would simply refer to my previous post. There could be a whole host of reasons for winding up a company. As the statement makes clear, this doesn't affect the operation of the hotel or the Peel cafe. Making moral judgements based on incomplete information is, however, a STW speciality...
Druidh, notice use of the phrases 'seems to be', 'looks like' etc
Being contrary just for the sake of it is, however, a druidh speciality. 😉
Prince of India in Pebbles
Whats it like?
Prince of India is pretty good. Some very tasty dishes and not too pricey.
Looking at Tripadvisor it gets a hairy-chested review 😯
Prince of India better at weekends ! Has been my observation. Higher food turnover I guess. Mt top tips for Peebles eating are the Tontine and the Chinese in the Northgate. Neither fancy but both good value. Sunflower is way over-rated.
Cocoa Black has the best coffee and cakes, but I haven't tried the new deli place. We are getting sooooo cosmopolitan in Peebles. The gays will be along soon. Get rid of the god-awful Beltane Festival and will have a half decent town.
Sunflower restaurant is the best eaterie in Peebles IMO
Interestingly, info suggests GT Restaurants Ltd company was set up the day the tender was awarded...
I agree braw at Sunflower. Prince of India usually OK, not cheap IMO. Shukria great take-away Indian, specially veg stuff. Coltmans has some great food, as does Osso. We're even getting a Wetherspoons pub soon so Peebles has arrived it seems... Hels, Beltane is fine once you get your head round its role in the community... half decent town? Peebles rocks if you ask me. (Come to think of it, it will actually rock on June 2 with the We Were Promised Jetpacks/Frabbit/Tweedlove gig.)
Ooooh Hels "Get rid of the god-awful Beltane Festival and will have a half decent town" people have been burnt at the Merket Cross for less 😈
I've lived here for 29 years but only the other week I was told my view wasnt vaild as I "wisnae Peebles" 😀
Anyway the best restaurant here is Osso by a mile, in fact so good I'm going to go for lunch right now!
Just incase, whats the nearest (decent) campsite to Peebles or Glentress?
I'm sorry but I hate the Beltane, there I've said it, stone me as a witch. As soon as I read all the frothing letters in the Peebles News about why a kid from Cardrona couldn't be the Farty Queen I knew it wasn't for me.
They close all the roads for days on end for sad tatty floats, and ship the chavs in from Gala to stumble drunkenly around the streets at night.
It's a local festival for local people...
We have Tweedlove now, lets just quietly get rid of Beltane, it just gets in the way !
(thats Gala the town, not Gala the Bingo, although they are hard to distinguish)
"It's a local festival for local people..." hit it right on the head there Hels, if you've seen it once etc 😉
I do like the Saturday morning bit though and my kids love it so hey ho...
Everything is open as usual - I rang and checked owing to having the hotel booked out for a group I am taking in a couple of weeks.
Relax folks. All is well.
"my kids love it" see thats what Fundamentalists do, they get them young and brainwash them...
What you like girl - next you'll be saying burning the deil is pish paganistic twaddle and that St Ronan didn't exist! 😯 😀
I'm down with burning stuff. You can keep that. I know that Elvis existed, and thats as far as I'm prepared to go.
😀
Any recent visitors?
At the cafe last week. Queues are still long. Not sure why as they seem to be more efficient at taking orders but its still a slow process for some reason
I'm staying there Thursday & Friday next week. My mate rang and spoke to Oli and he's assured him they are trading as normal.
See you Fri Russ
30 of us were up there a couple of weeks ago - we were provided with beds, breakfasts and dinner.
All great!!
And all still very open.
All good from this weekend.