Lough Rea Hotel sold to Supermac's owner
The Lough Rea Hotel and Spa is 10 minutes away from where Supermac’s owner Pat McDonagh lives in Co Galway.
Mr McDonagh acquired the Catletroy Park Hotel in Limerick in 2012, buying it for an estimated €3.5m — €22.5m less than it was sold for eight years earlier.
Receivers were appointed to the Lough Rea Hotel by Ulster Bank back in October 2012 and it was feared that the facility would be forced to close its doors.
However, Mr McDonagh yesterday confirmed that he had stepped in to buy the facility, saving the 70 jobs for the region at the same time.
“They are a great staff and there aren’t going to be any huge changes,” said Mr McDonagh.
“I’m sure we’ll be bringing in a few marketing people and maybe our own financial people to help out on it, but nothing major, they’ve a good team there so why change it.
“I knew the hotel quite well, I lived only seven or eight miles away from it. So it wasn’t as if I had to do much research into it. It was on my doorstep,” he said.
Mr McDonagh opened his first Supermac’s restaurant in Ballinasloe in 1978 and since then has built it into Ireland’s largest indigenous fast food restaurant chain.
The entrepreneur met staff at the hotel on the Old Galway Road on Tuesday night and said he intends to carry out a full revamp of the hotel in the near future.
“I think the hotel is massive for the town. It brings a lot of business to a town so we’re delighted to have concluded the deal last week. And as soon as the legalities are sorted out in the next week or two we hope to be taking possession,” he said.
