* Everbright Group Operations Manager Nic Rowland. Picture by Mandy Jones
The boss of a Llangollen hotel who started out washing pots in the kitchen is spearheading
a major expansion plan and a £2 million plan to cut carbon.
Group Operations
Manager Nic Rowland, 38, revealed the award-winning Everbright
Hotel Group - it owns the Wild Pheasant in Llangollen - is aiming to increase the number of properties in their portfolio
from seven to 10 in North Wales and the North of England.
Meanwhile, the Everbright Hotel Group was recently
hailed as a trailblazer by the Net Zero North Wales Network for investing in
green technology at the Llandudno Bay Hotel, where the carbon footprint was cut
by 84 per cent and energy bills were slashed from a quoted £300,000 to
£100,000.
Over the next few years the eco-friendly approach
is going to be replicated across the group’s other hotels, the Wild Pheasant, the Belmont and the
Queens in Llandudno, Rossett Hall near Wrexham, the George Hotel in Penrith and Stonecross Manor in Kendal.
It’s all a far cry from when Nic started as a
wet-behind-the-ears, 15-year-old schoolboy washing pots at the Grade II listed
Rossett Hall Hotel.
Things could have turned out very differently
because he originally embarked on a university degree course in IT – but gave
that up after three months because he realised he liked the hotel business
more.
At the heart of
his remarkable rise up the ranks is a formidable work ethic that saw him at one
point holding down three jobs while still in school – as well doing shifts
at the hotel, he had two papers rounds and worked in a local shop.
Rocket boosters
were put under his career when Rossett Hall was bought in 2015 by the
Everbright Group which grew rapidly over subsequent years with the purchase of
all the other hotels.
Nic said: “What I
liked about working in a hotel was the buzz and the camaraderie with colleagues
and you thrive off the positive feedback from customers. I just love it.
“We’ve gone from
one site in Rossett to seven individual properties in the space of eight
years with more to come. It’s been an amazing journey.
“All but one of
the hotels are four star rated which they weren’t originally – the exception
being the George Hotel in Penrith where we have aspirations to upgrade to four
stars by 2025.”
According to Nic, he’s proud the pioneering green
initiatives at the Llandudno Bay Hotel were recognised earlier this year at the
international Lux Life Travel and Tourism Awards when
the Everbright Group was crowned Sustainable Luxury Hotel Group of the Year.
The award was the latest in a series of accolades
for the group which included being named as the Ethical, Responsible and
Sustainable Hotel
of the Year 2023 at the Go North Wales Tourism Awards and at the same
ceremony, Rossett Hall was named as the Best Large Hotel in North Wales.
He said: “We invested around £150,000 in the
heating system in Llandudno Bay which significantly reduced our ongoing
costs at just the right time because that’s when the energy crisis happened.
“We were looking
at energy bills quoted at £300,000 a year and that wasn’t sustainable for the
business. It’s brought the energy bills down to around £100,000 a year.
“That was a game
changer and we are now going to roll-out the green energy initiative across all
our properties, replicating what we did in Llandudno Bay right across the
group.
“We’re looking at
similar energy efficient heating systems, solar power, thermodynamic panels and
EV charging points.
“It’s going to be
a huge investment of around £2 million but it makes total business sense and
it’s also great for the planet.
“We’re on an
amazing journey because Everbright is an aspirational company and still quite
young.
“I am excited
about the future and thoroughly driven as there is a good direction of travel
with the business and we know where we want to get to.”
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