Specialist Leisure Group, a British hotel and leisure travel company specialising in tours throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide for the over 50s, has gone into administration.
Headquartered in Wigan, the group is expected to make 2,400 people redundant across its 44 UK hotels and travel brands. All of its hotel properties have ceased trading.
The group operated the Shearings coach holiday brand which had been in business for 117 years, as well as National Holidays (trading as Caledonian Travel), UK Breakaways, Coast & Country Hotels, Bay Hotels, Country Living Hotels, and Wallace Arnold Travel.
Bay Hotels' 31 properties, Coast & Country Hotels' 11 assets and the two Country Living Hotels will not reopen, according to administrators EY.
Only two of the group's hotel properties were owned outright, in Exmouth and Bournemouth. The remainder were leased from a US-based private equity firm.
Joint administrator at EY, Sam Woodward, commented: 'The group has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as all tours, trips and events have been cancelled and the hotels closed to the public, leading to a significant cash shortfall.
'The directors of the group have been in discussions with a number of parties, seeking a going concern buyer for the business. Unfortunately, despite interest in the group as a whole and in parts, no viable transaction structure was able to be agreed and, as a result, the group was placed into administration.
'We will also be seeking to realise the remaining assets of the group’s business for the benefit of creditors and we are therefore seeking offers from interested parties,' Woodward said.
