Andrew Davis (businessman)

Andrew Davis is a British former businessman who founded[1] the von Essen Group, which included Von Essen Hotels, PremiAir and the London Heliport.

Early life and career

Davis went to Reigate Grammar School and Caterham College in Surrey, near where his father, Brendon, an executive at a subsidiary of Redland Tiles, and his mother still live.[2] During the early 1990s he was involved in small-scale property development,founding and operating a small helicopter charter business. It has been reported that Davis's first moneymaking business was selling jewellery and silver spoons door-to-door in the West Country.[3]

Von Essen Hotels

By 2000, Von Essen had three properties: Mount Somerset hotel in Taunton, Congham Hall hotel in Norfolk and New Park Manor in Hampshire. In 2000, it bought Ston Easton Park in Bath and Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire for around £5m each. Bishopstrow House hotel in Wiltshire was bought in 2001. In 2002 Davis leased Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, and the Royal Crescent hotel in Bath, for £50m. In 2003, Von Essen bought Lewtrenchard Manor in Devon, Dalhousie Castle near Edinburgh, and, for £16m, three Cotswolds properties (Buckland Manor, Lower Slaughter and Washbourne Court) and The Elms in the Teme Valley. The icing on the cake was the acquisition of the Sharrow Bay Country House hotel in Cumbria which was the UK's first country house hotel when it opened in the 1950s. According to the Good Food Guide's editor Desmond Balmer, Cliveden, the infamous backdrop to the 1960s Profumo Scandal, "has not shone as a hotel for the past five years". Of Sharrow Bay, Balmer said "We have dropped it".[4]

In 2007, after claims of Fawlty Towers-style bungling and poor service, seven of Davis's hotels were axed from The Good Hotel Guide, the leading arbiter of independent hotels in Britain and Ireland.[5]

The holding company, Von Essen Hotels, went into administration in April 2011 after defaulting on debt interest repayments.[6] The administrators, Ernst & Young, appointed a new chairman to replace Davis.[7] The portfolio was broken up, and most hotels had buyers by September 2011.[8] The 33 hotels, freehold unless stated otherwise, were:

Other businesses

In 2007, Davis bought London Heliport and PremiAir. In February 2012 the heliport site was acquired by Reuben Brothers. In November 2012 Davis sold his controlling interest in PremiAir. Von Essen Aviation owned several helicopters and a private jet. In 2010, Davis was ranked on the Sunday Times Rich List at No. 244, with an estimated wealth of £292m. According to the Sunday Times of 26 April 2009, von Essen sponsors the Sunday Times Rich List.[11] Since then the veracity of these estimates, and of Davis's public persona, has been questioned.[12]

Personal life

Davis's partner is Andrew Onraet, they have lived together since 1998. Prior to that, Davis appears to have married once, though he is now divorced. He is the father of a teenage son.[4]

References

  1. Walsh, Dominic (9 February 2007). "Von Essen Hotels acquires London Heliport for £50m". The Times. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  2. Lobbying for Power; the Mysterious 'Lord' Davis Owns Cliveden and the Royal Crescent, Evening Standard, 19 March 2004
  3. 4.0 4.1 "Losing at Monopoly?". Evening Standard. 10 September 2004. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  4. Smith, David (12 September 2004). "Comedy of hotel errors provokes axe by top guide". The Guardian (London).
  5. Russell, Jonathan (21 April 2011). "Von Essen in administration after defaulting on interest". The Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group). Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  6. Harmer, Janet (10 May 2011). "Von Essen announce senior redundancies". CatererSearch.com (Reed Business Information). Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  7. Offers made on two-thirds of von Essen hotels, This is Bath, 5 September 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  8. 9.0 9.1 Harmer, Janet (30 January 2012). "Cliveden sale to complete tomorrow as new owners promise to return property's sparkle". Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  9. Neate, Rupert (2 September 2011). "Property magnates poised to buy Profumo mansion Cliveden". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  10. Chittenden, Maurice; McCall, Alastair (26 April 2009). "Golden secrets of the recession beaters". The Times (London).
  11. Stephen Robinson (31 May 2011). "Cliveden's latest scandal and how its tycoon owner duped the banks and London society, ''London Evening Standard'', 31 May 2011". Thisislondon.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2012.

External links