Galgorm owners celebrate soaring profits
The parent company of the Galgorm Collection of hospitality venues has seen sales rise from £16.5m to £22.7m in the year to October 31, marking a huge bounce back from a pandemic hit.
Between 2019 and 2020 the group took a £10m hit, but its latest accounts filed at Companies House reveal show it is now back on track to pass its record turnover of £26.7m in 2019.
The hospitality giant is owned by brothers Nick and Paul Hill and as well as the landmark Galgorm hotel, its other properties include the Fratelli Group of pizzerias, the Rabbit hotel in Templepatrick and The Old Inn in Crawfordsburn which it purchased in April 2021.
Accounts files with Companies House also show the group’s pre-tax profits jumped from just shy of £400,000 to £3.2 million over the year, and on a bottom-line basis, shareholders banked more than £2 million (against just £116,621 in 2020).
Employment rose in 2021 to an average of 749 people – up on the previous year’s figure of 593. Most of the additional workers (152) were on the production side. The recruitment pushed Tullymore’s wages bill from £11.9m to £14.2m
At its flagship Galgorm site, the company is in the throes of a £30 million investment, including £10m in new accommodation and the expansion of its award-wining thermal spa facilities.
The group is also awaiting further panning permissions for an 18-room boutique hotel and restaurant on Belfast’s Ormeau Road, to be called The Raven.
Its owners hope it will see the former Holy Rosary Church, above, become a foodie destination for residents and non-residents alike.
The group’s plan though are facing fresh objections from locals after an application was made to extend licensing hours from 11pm to 1am.
In April 2019 Galgorm Collection received permission from Belfast City Council to transform the 19th century listed building and an adjacent parochial house building, which has been derelict since 1980.
The £8 million plan by Fratelli Ormeau Road Ltd involves the demolition of parts of the parochial house and change of use of the whole building to an 18 bed hotel and licensed restaurant.
However, when the applicant varied the conditions set by Belfast City Council to extend its restaurant opening times from 11pm to 1am on Friday through to Sunday, residents in nearby Bell Towers and Fitzwilliam Avenue submitted 23 letters of objection.
