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UK: The Big Sleep hotel chain has been put up for sale by its owner Cosmo Fry, either as a package or individually.
The brand was launched in 1999 by Fry and his wife Lulu Anderson, and has been credited with “creating a new sub-genre of designer and boutique accommodation”.
Peter Brunt, hotels director of Colliers International, which is marketing the properties, said: “Cosmo Fry was one of the first people to see the potential of converting former office buildings into boutique hotels and offering a radical alternative to some of the bigger hotel offerings.”
The brand’s first hotel, an 81-bedroom property in Bute Terrace, Cardiff is on the market for around £2 million on a long leasehold. The Cheltenham’s property is priced at £3 million freehold, and Big Sleep Eastbourne, located on King Edward’s Parade, is on the market at £1.6 million freehold.
“The hotels are up for sale either as a package or individually and represent a 13 year investment of time, money and most importantly, imagination,” said Brunt.
Cosmo Fry, heir to the Fry’s chocolate dynasty, said: “The Big Sleep brand was a bit of a bolt from the blue to the hotel industry as Lulu and I came to the sector with no background experience so we were not restrained by having to conform to anybody else’s ideas of how hotels should look or operate. We were thinking outside of the box and have been able to develop the business organically.”
www.thebigsleephotel.com
26/06/12
