OakNorth completes deal with Northumberland’s largest independent accommodation provider

By Bridging Loan Directory 27th June 2018

OakNorth, the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has provided The Inn Collection Group – one of North East England’s top leisure operators with seven sites across Northumberland, County Durham and Teesside – with finance to fund their expansion.

Established in 2006, The Inn Collection Group has become a market leader in developing contemporary inns providing accommodation, food and drink to leisure and business customers. It currently has 215 rooms across its seven sites, but plans to increase this to almost 300 by 2020 with the OakNorth lending.

In addition to opening an eighth inn later this year – a 30-bedroom inn in Amble, Northumberland – the business has added another 13 rooms to The Bamburgh Castle Inn, The Annex, and has refurbished the Seaton Lane Inn that has recently reopened. The group’s growth map also includes the addition of 29 new rooms at its popular Durham city centre operation, The Kingslodge Inn.

The Inn Collection Group’s Managing Director Sean Donkin, said:

“Over the last half decade, we’ve embarked on a ‘buy and build’ growth strategy that has seen us become one of the largest private providers of accommodation in North East England. Over the next three years, we will continue to develop and seek out new premises, focusing on sites that fit with our philosophy and the continual evolution of our group, offering high-quality accommodation at value for money prices. Raising funds from OakNorth will pave the way for us to drive these growth plans and focus on the immediate expansion of our pubs with rooms model.”

Stuart Blair, Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, said:

“The UK’s hotel industry has seen annual growth of three percent for the last five years, boosted by major events such as the London Olympics, the Royal Wedding, and the Rugby World Cup. The Great Exhibition of the North which is currently underway is expected to give the region’s tourism a further boost, attracting approx. three million people and one million from across the UK.

“The management team at The Inn Collection Group is in a prime position to take advantage of this – we were impressed by their business model, the operational experience of Sean, Keith Liddell and the wider team, as well as the quality of each site. The team have a plan to grow the group by expanding into new sites and locations, and we look forward to working with them to support this.”