Jim Parker: Hotelier takes stock in testing times... but he’s not finished yet

Most days you will find Keith Richardson enjoying a spot of lunch at the Grand Hotel on Torquay seafront.
It is more often than not a plate of cheese and apple. At 85, Keith is an avid believer that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
But for how much longer does, and can, this well-known tourism and hospitality figure and character of the last 50 years go on?

Much of Keith's Richardson Hotels empire has been sold or is now up for sale. The Abbey Sands in Belgrave Road, Torquay, is closed for the winter and is up for sale with an asking price of about £2 million.
The Royal Beacon in Exmouth was closed at the end of last month and is on the market with a price tag of around £2 million.
And the Falmouth Hotel in Falmouth was sold earlier this year with a price guide of £7.5 million.
He originally had seven hotels but some were sold to alleviate financial problems a few years ago.

He says he has been hit by a 'tsunami' of cost increases - with his energy bills rising from £400,000 to £1.1 million a year and his wage costs going up by another £250,000, taking into account minimum wage requirements.
“Everything you touch is going up. This is why I am selling up prematurely,” says Keith.

He adds: “I am down to one operating hotel and that is the Grand. That opens all year round.
I am still making a loss in the winter but hope to make enough in the summer to cover it.
This summer has been okay. It was nothing to write home about.
People refer to the light at the end of the tunnel. I can't find the tunnel. If I could, I could find the way out.”

Keith has always been of the opinion that there are too many hotels in the Bay and not the demand to match them.
He says: “They have opened these new hotels but demand is not there. All they are doing is flooding the market with more hotels which are not required.
If people want branded hotels they are going to have to let other hotels be turned into something else.
I find it remarkable that more hotels haven't closed down in the Bay.”

Keith is also keen to put his own house in order and says: “I cannot go on forever. I do not want to leave a shambles.
I am as fit as a fiddle but I am getting older and you do not know what is around the corner. We have to accept that old age creeps up on us.
My problem is that if I was run over by a bus tomorrow my business would be in a mess because I wouldn't be around to sort it.”

He also claims: “There is a lack of talent in staff these days. You cannot get any middle management.
Ten people applied for jobs but not one turned up. This is life today, business life. It is really difficult.”

Talking of houses - his house and cottage in the picturesque South Devon village of Coffinswell is also up for sale for £1.9 million.
He jokes: “I am going to buy a tent and live in the garden. I am not proud.”

He adds: “I have a lot of money tied up in my house. In these difficult times it is costing me a lot of money.”

He appears to be taking a leaf out of his old mum's book.
“When my mum was 80, she said she wanted to travel light. I am just travelling light,” he says.

Mind you, there are other business interests to focus the mind on and keep him busy.
He has sold on the old Torquay Town Hall in the town centre but he has developed the old Municipal Chambers building at Castle Circus into apartments and may look to do the same with the former magistrates courts building just up the road which he also owns.

As for his cherished Grand Hotel, he is still going ahead with plans to build 16 'villas' on the current garage site at the back of the hotel.
He says: “The Grand is my biggest hotel and is not up for sale, although I am sure if somebody came in with a good deal, I would sell it.”

I get the feeling there are a few cheese and apple lunches left in him yet...