Management jobs cut at St Andrews Bay

The Courier, 18 February 2003

The massive St Andrews Bay Resort and Spa complex on the outskirts of St Andrews has made three major posts redundant as part of cuts in its management structure.

General manager Stephen Carter yesterday said among the jobs was that of director of golf, held by professional John Kelly since the resort opened about two years ago.

He joined the venture from a senior position in the golf team at the Old Course Hotel Golf Resort and Spa, the area’s other major hotel business.

Mr Carter said other posts affected were those of resident manager and director of food and beverages.

He emphasised that one of the staff involved, the resident manager, was being transferred to one of the hotel group’s other properties in California, and that discussions were continuing with the other two people.

He said that although their own jobs had been declared redundant, they were still able to apply for any other posts at the hotel they thought they might be able to fill.

Mr Carter said that the redundancies represented a ‘a flattening of the management team,’ and that the duties involved would be distributed among other senior members of staff.

No other redundancies were under consideration in what was purely a management and not a financial exercise, he added.

It would, he said, put the resort in a strong position as the tourist trade in general waited to see how the year’s business would develop.

Mr Carter said that at the moment forward bookings were looking good and conference business was holding up, but a lot would depend on what happened on the world stage over the next few weeks. He said bookings from across the Atlantic had dropped off in the wake of the September 11 attacks but were picking up again, and that there was a healthy level of business from Europe.

The complex, with over 200 rooms, two championship golf courses, and conference and leisure facilities, stands on a clifftop east of the town.

The second golf course and a new clubhouse were completed last year and officially opened in August at a ceremony attended by Scotland’s First Minister Jack McConnell.

The whole complex employs around 220 staff, and has been developed at a cost of well over £60 million.

The resort’s management team is part of an initiative organised by a group of local private sector tourism professionals working on a vision of St Andrews as a “world-class” destination.