How we’ve been supporting our clients, Balbirnie House Hotel

Category: COVID-19Leisure - Posted On: Aug 28 2020


The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors during these unprecedented times. At EQ, we have been working hard to ensure we provide relevant support and advice to ensure our clients weather the storm and are able to welcome back their own customers.

One of those clients is Balbirnie House Hotel, an award-winning luxury country house hotel nestled within 400 acres of beautiful parkland in the heart of Fife. The hotel is run by Managing Director, Nicholas Russell who has spent over 35 years in hospitality, joining Balbirnie in 1992 and becoming company Managing Director in 2005.

Balbirnie has won countless awards, recently it was voted as global recipient, Best Destination Wedding Hotel by Haute Grandeur hotel awards and during lockdown the hotel became the winner of Scottish Hotel Awards ‘Wedding Hotel of the Year’ for Scotland, quite incredibly, for the 14th annual time. Known for combining beautiful surroundings with fantastic food and the very best service, the hotel is loved by customers and is a popular wedding venue.

Naturally, Nicholas and his team were devastated when lockdown restrictions were enforced. They immediately contacted their clients to begin to discuss rescheduling and started to consider how to safeguard the future of the business and protect their staff. Luckily the business was in a good position but with very significant ongoing costs still to be paid, they needed to consider external funding. Therefore, Nicholas sought advice for his advisory team, including his bank HSBC and our Partner, Mark Gibson.

Mark commented, “In these uncertain times, it was crucial that we provided advice in relation to the various funding options available and assisted as much as we could on anything to help with cashflow and cash retention. After looking at the eligibility criteria of the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund Grant, which was created for SME businesses that can play a critical role in supporting Scotland’s economic recovery following the coronavirus, I contacted Nicholas to discuss. He had initially ruled out this particular avenue of potential assistance, but after undertaking research and making appropriate enquiries I managed to alleviate Nicholas’ concerns and convince him to apply. We were both delighted when two weeks after submitting Balbirnie’s application, the company was granted £85,000.”

Nicholas added, “I’d like to thank Mark and the rest of the EQ team for their invaluable support and advice. The funding they have helped us secure provides the financial boost we need to support our successful reopening and help guarantee our future.  We are now in a confident position and are putting our plans in place to ensure dedicated online reservations, use of an app for digital payments as opposed to cash and all social distancing measures we can. We take pride in knowing our future has been safeguarded, our brigade is 100% intact and we look forward to welcoming our guests.”

“Scotland’s Hospitality sector has been adversely affected by the pandemic, whilst the grant has been crucial to our re-opening, the full costs of hibernation and implications of 3 months of suspended trading, are in the ballpark of £1m. We’re grateful to have been in such a position of financial strength prior to lockdown, with those costs incorporated and carried by our shareholders, we were thankfully able to re-finance via HSBC. Our thoughts are with all industry colleagues who have not been able to do this.”

The Balbirnie team have set up a new al fresco external dining area which opened at the beginning of July, with all social distancing and safety measures in place, and have been catering for up to 350 guests per day. The hotel accommodation and internal dining are open as per the government guidance and they are accepting bookings via their website and phone. As and when social distancing is reduced and the hotel is once again able to cater for large weddings, the property will begin its busiest 12 months for weddings, in history. Balbirnie House has also been taking many new future wedding bookings, with a key consideration for hospitality now being, that many future wedding couples are certainly only booking wedding venues which they anticipate will still be in business at the point of the future wedding date.

To book your stay, reserve a table or to discuss your special day, contact the Balbirnie team via https://balbirnie.co.uk/ or call 01592 610066.