Cairngorm Mountain Ltd placed in administration
Cairngorm Mountain Limited has been placed in administration but workers’ jobs are safe for now.
Blair Milne and Derek Forsyth, partners with Campbell Dallas, have been appointed joint administrators for the attraction.
They have given assurances that the resort will continue to operate and there will be no redundancies at this time.
A spokesperson for the administrators said: “We will continue to trade the business whilst progressing discussions with a potential purchaser for a sale of the business and assets as a going concern. There are no immediate plans to make any redundancies.”
The shut-down of the £20m Cairngorm mountain railway on safety grounds has been blamed for creating cash flow problems.
The funicular has been closed since the end of September to allow for a detailed assessment of the structure that supports the tracks.
These investigative works remain on-going.
Cairngorm Mountain Limited employs around 70 staff and had a turnover of £3.5m to 31st December 2017.
Blair Milne, Business Recovery Partner with Campbell Dallas, said: “Due to the extended closure of the Funicular Railway at Cairngorm Mountain, for safety reasons, the business has become unsustainably loss-making. “The directors of the business had been in discussions to try to find suitable solutions including a managed transfer of the business to another party however those negotiations did not progress.
“Under mounting cash flow and creditor pressures the directors were left with no alternative other than to place the business into administration.
“The joint administrators will be seeking to achieve a sale of the remaining business on a going concern basis as early as possible.”
The Cairngorm Railway and Mountain Snowsports centre are owned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and had been operated on its behalf under a lease by Cairngorm Mountain Limited.
It means that Wilmslow-based Natural Retreats - who have come in for heavy criticism of their running of the attraction – no longer have a role in running the CairnGorm Mountain operation.
They took over the day to day running of the business in May 2014.
More reaction to come on this big breaking story.
