Golf club investing £4 million in diversity (From York Press)
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Golf club investing £4 million in diversity
11:48am Monday 4th March 2013 in Business news
By Julie Hayes, Business editor
Lucy Eyre, operations director of Kilnwick Percy Golf Club, with director of golf Aaron Pheasant, and one of the new lodges being worked on in the background
AN EAST Yorkshire golf club is investing £4 million in diversifying its business.
The KP Club, based at Kilnwick Percy, near Pocklington, is building 24 new holiday lodges, as well as a gym and spa, to expand its offering.
The club, which already has ten lodges, received planning permission for the new lodges in June 2011.
The first 12 are expected to be completed by the end of the summer, and the club hopes the building work on the following 12 will be completed by the end of winter.
The increase in the number of lodges will enable it to hold one-night stays, said Lucy Eyre, operations director, including golf breaks, spa breaks and to accommodate cyclists attracted to the region by the Tour de France.
The spa and gym will be opened in one of the lodges, she said, while the company expects to submit another planning application for a dedicated spa to be built in adjacent woodland.
Once the new lodges are built, overlooking the Vale of York and Yorkshire Wolds, they will be able to accommodate about 150 guests in total.
They will also use the golf course and dine in the restaurant, she said.
Far from an exclusive members’ club, the KP Club aims to become a boutique leisure resort, said Miss Eyre, attracting the general public and visitors to use the club house, which was built new about five years ago.
She said: “You need to be more versatile in this climate and more aware of what’s going on around you. You have to be thinking ahead in a difficult financial climate. The way people think is different.”
She said the KP Club, which employs 45 people, has aimed to attract local residents to use the bar and restaurant, holding tribute nights in its function room.
Following the success of a Christmas fair in December, it is now planning to hold a spring fair, with shopping stalls throughout the clubhouse and a children’s fairground and bouncy castle in the grounds.
The £4 million investment also includes spending on improving the drainage of the course itself and the company also hopes next year to get permission to extend its existing clubhouse to accommodate a new members’ lounge.
“We’re recruiting at the moment and the bigger we get, we will need to recruit more people,” she said.
