Coutts Prize for Family Business 2007/08

Coutts Prize for Family Business 2007/8 – Regional Winner

Beales Hotels
Winner Best Family Business
Turnover Category Ł5 - 25m London & Greater London Region

Beales Hotels, based in Hertfordshire has been named ‘Best UK Family Business, London and Greater London Region’, in the Ł5-25m turnover category of the Coutts Prize for Family Business 2007/8. The company will now go on to compete in the Ł5-25M category at the national finals to be held in central London on Thursday 5 June 2008.

Herfordshire based, Beales Hotels was founded in 1769. The hotel group which consists of one traditional and one contemporary four star hotel, is run by the eight generation of the Beale family. There are 200 full and part-time staff currently employed by the company.

Jonathan Hagger, Regional Chairman of the evaluation committee commented:
“Beales Hotels is a successful eighth generation family business owning four star hotels in Hertfordshire, the things that impressed the evaluation committee about Beales Hotels included:

The sheer passion and excitement for the business conveyed by the nomination, which has seen the business through 230 years of family ownership across eight generations;
The strong and open communication mechanism established to manage and inform the increasing number of family shareholders. This includes an annual family forum, regular informal shareholder lunches and a monthly newsletter, which keeps the family abreast of developments in the business;
The separation of ‘family’ and ‘business’ evidenced by the active use of independent non-executive directors, a structured process for buying back shares in the family and the encouragement for family to work outside the business before entering;
Their ability to reinvent their brand through a programme of heavy investment and divestment, whilst maintaining their profit margins and a financial position; and
The family’s substantial contribution to charitable and community causes which includes donating 16% of the annual dividends to the Beale charitable trust and supporting art-based initiatives in the local community.”