Nevis Range Mountain Experience near Fort William in Lochaber is looking to recruit 30 new staff by spring next year following its tie-up with hospitality group Cobbs to run its cafes, gift shop and a hotel currently under construction.
From this month the Snowgoose and Pinemarten cafes at Nevis Range will operate under Cobbs management in line with their other restaurants.
The hotel at the Nevis Range base station will join the network of Cobbs properties in the Highlands with the company also occupying one of the retail spaces at the base station and operating a gift and souvenir shop.
Cobbs also owns Great Glen Distillery based at Drumnadrochit, making its eponymous gin in a range of flavours and which will be supplied to Nevis Range. Great Glen recently won Best Newcomer at the Scottish Gin Awards.
It also has a portfolio of 19 cafes ranging from a tearoom at Inverness Botanics to one in Edinburgh’s Marchmont area.
The Cobbs group manages a range of businesses across Scotland including cafes, bakeries and six hotels including the Highland properties of Loch Ness Lodge, Loch Ness Clansman, Loch Ness Country House and Loch Ness Drumnadrochit Hotel.
The company takes its name from John Cobb who, in his boat, Crusader, attempted to break the world water speed record on Loch Ness in 1952, but unfortunately did not survive the attempt.
The Nevis Range hub development project – a 26-bedroom hotel, bar and restaurant, bike shop, gift shop and a covered courtyard with event space is due for completion in early 2023.
‘Sharing risk and reward’
A joint-venture company will be set up (Nevis Range, 60%, Cobbs, 40%) which will effectively be a management company for the accommodation side run by Cobbs.
Nevis Range will retain ownership and control of the asset, but for the management contract element, the company wanted to make sure it was “sharing risk and reward.”
The deal will be on a 10-year term with opportunities for breaks in the contract for both parties.
Nevis Range managing director Chris O’Brien, who is also part of the Tourism and Hospitality Leadership Group as well as being on the board of Highland Tourism, told the Press and Journal: “Conservatively, we are expecting to generate an additional 30 full-time jobs to the 80 people we already employ and we expect that to expand; that will all kick in by spring.
“It (recruitment) has certainly been more challenging for front-line positions than for technical and professional ones.”
Mr O’Brien said Nevis Range had not particularly relied on European workers as the “core of the workforce” and that despite the undoubted challenges posed by Brexit, the fact the company offers a living wage and is a “fair work employer”, has attracted staff through the door.
The Nevis Range chief also squarely addressed one of the most pressing issues surrounding Highland recruitment, namely housing and conceded to being “nervous” about the next phase of recruitment primarily due to accommodation issues.
We could build student halls of residence type accommodation”
Nevis Range MD Chris O’Brien.
“One of the things I raised recently is we could build accommodation here at Nevis Range,” he said, adding: “We could build student halls of residence type accommodation.
“What we are suggesting – and it is only in the early stages but I have raised it with the Scottish government – is we could find a way to streamline planning processes and perhaps even offer tax incentives.
“We could build a lot of accommodation and solve a lot of these problems with the private sector. I have floated that idea to more than one minister and I am working on a paper to pose it as an official question.
“It is for the private sector to solve the problem with defined help from the government. We should be looking at potential VAT incentives on build price and potential tax breaks on the income of businesses which do that.”
Since opening in 1989, Nevis Range offers year-round mountain access to 200,000 skiers, snowboarders, climbers, bikers and hillwalkers.
Nevis Range has spent £8 million developing its resort in the last four years including a latest tranche of £4.5 million to cover the base station, the hotel, bike shop and restaurant, which will be known as Great Glen Tapas to be run by Nevis Range when it opens in the spring.
The company has also built a training and conference centre as well as a gift shop, while also receiving £400,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the same amount from the Covid Recovery Fund.
Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships in Nevis Range for 2023
“The only thing left to do is change our vehicles (four snow ploughs) to biodiesel, which we hope to achieve by the end of this winter.”
The company also recently unveiled a partnership with Commencal, the international bike and ski brand based in Andorra and ahead of the Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships coming to Nevis Range in 2023, as well as with Grandvalira Resorts Andorra, the organisation which manages all the Principality’s ski areas, for winter 2022/23.
Nevis Range is collaborating with the industry experience of Willie Cameron (Loch Ness Marketing and Cobbs), known locally as “Mr Loch Ness”, Cobbs director Fraser Campbell and Daniel Campbell of Redbox Coffee and Tea.
Nevis Range Mountain Experience
The Nevis Range Mountain Experience lies seven miles north of Fort William and south of Spean Bridge.
It was opened in 1989 to develop a skiing and tourism facility on the mountain of Aonach Mor in the shadow of Ben Nevis.
