This article is from page 6 of the 2013-01-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE shock closure of Woodstock Hotel last Friday after less than an hour’s notice was given to many full-time and part-time staff represents the second time in four years that the four star hotel has shut its doors.
In October 2008 the collapse of the Dunne Hotel Group that once owned seven hotels around the country, from Waterford City up as far as Ballina in Mayo, led to Woodstock’s demise before it re-opened in 2008 under new management.
The hotel was built during the Celtic Tiger years and first opened its doors in 2000 and was acquired by the Dunne Group in 2004 as it expanded its portfolio of hotels from the Two Mile Inn in Meelick to include six more in a chain of hotels.
The primarily Clare-based hotel chain had three hotels in the county – the Two Mile Inn, the Bunratty Shamrock and Woodstock – while it also owned Patrick Punch’s Hotel in Limerick, the Fitzwilton Hotel in Waterford, the Clybaun Hotel in Galway and the Ridgepool Hotel in Ballina.
The family-owned business had revenues of more than € 36m in 2006 and has properties valued at € 86m, but two years later, after a downturn in business that was attributed to a fall-off in visitors from America, the business collapsed.
Woodstock Hotel went into examinership in June 2008 before a liquidator was appointed with the closure of the hotel in October of that year. It then re-opened in March 2008 as a result of a new partnership with Ennis hotelier Noel Mulhaire and Wyndham Worldwide, which operated a number of UK hotel franchises.
The new Woodstock Hotel, which initially created 45 jobs, operated under the group Fortmere Hotels, Ireland, while more recently was part of the Grand National Hotels and resorted that included 16 hotels around the country.