A hotel boss who started out washing pots in the kitchen is spearheading a major expansion plan and a £2 million plan to cut carbon.
Nic Rowland joined the Grade II listed Rossett Hall Hotel as a 15-year-old schoolboy and is now Group Operations Manager at award-winning hotel group Everbright Hotel Group.
Rossett Hall was bought in 2015 by the Everbright Group which grew rapidly over subsequent years, and is now aiming to increase the number of properties in their portfolio from seven to 10 in North Wales and the North of England.
The 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% 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 Belmont and the Queens in Llandudno, Rossett Hall near Wrexham, the Wild Pheasant Hotel and Spa in Llangollen, the George Hotel in Penrith and Stonecross Manor in Kendal.
Nic said:
“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.”
Earlier this year the sustainability efforts at the Llandudno Bay Hotel were recognised 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.
Nic 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.”
