The company behind a golf course near Aberdeen has gone into liquidation with debts of more than £500,000, reports yesterday’s “Aberdeen Press and Journal” which states that London and Scotland Golf Courses (LSGC), which owns the Craibstone Golf Centre near Bucksburn, has received a winding-up order after a judge appointed provisional joint liquidators to step in.
It is understood the Clydesdale Bank, which the golf firm owes £500,000, and the company’s director, Stephen Harrod, agreed the company should go into liquidation and successfully applied at the Court of Session in Edinburgh for the order.
Administrators Begbies Traynor have been brought in to try to sell LSGC, which is based at Letham Grange, Angus, as a going concern. The company’s only golf course is the centre at Craibstone, which it bought from the nearby Scottish Agricultural College in 2006.
According to the golf centre’s website – www.craibstone.com – LSGC proposed to extend the clubhouse and build a driving range and homes at the site. It said plans had already been submitted and the firm hoped to start building work at the end of next year’s golf season.
The club, which opened in 2000, currently has around 425 members, but this is described as “a limited membership” and there is normally a waiting list, according to the website.
The Press and Journal reports that Neil Dempsey, senior insolvency manager for Begbies Traynor in Aberdeen, said: “We are looking to trade the business in the short-term while we endeavour to find a buyer who will be in a position to continue running the centre as soon as possible. We would ask any parties interested in purchasing the centre to contact our Aberdeen office as a matter of urgency.” enquiries@begbies-traynorgroup.com Tel: 01224 619354
A spokesman for the administrator added the 127-acre, 18-hole course and centre will remain open “for the foreseeable time” and that all five full-time employees have been kept on in their greenkeeping, bar and catering positions.
A tourism expert has commented that the company’s financial difficulties do not signal a problem in attracting visitors for other golf clubs in the north and north-east. Andrew Martin, director of the Scottish Centre of Tourism at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said: “Golf tourism across Scotland is thriving, and if anything it is building momentum.”
Craibstone Golf Centre www.craibstone.com
Begbies Traynor www.begbies-traynorgroup.com