MORE than 80 jobs have been secured after administrators sealed a deal to sell off an historic Ipswich hotel.

MORE than 80 jobs have been secured after administrators sealed a deal to sell off an historic Ipswich hotel.

The Belstead Brook Hotel, in Belstead Road, was formerly part of the Swallow Hotels Group which was placed in administration in September.

Following an uncertain couple of months for around 80 staff based there, administrators have clinched a deal to sell the hotel as part of a package of 13 hotels in the group.

The new owners, Crerar Hotels, part of the Northern British Trust Group, already run eight hotels in the north of England and Scotland.

Peter Bartlett, manager of the Belstead Brook Hotel, said of the sale: “It is fantastic news.

“It means that the future of the hotel is now secure.

“What exactly it means will come to fruition when I have a conversation with the new owners about investment and product improvement.

“We have always been very confident that this sale would happen.

“We have got a fabulous hotel which is very successful and it has simply been a question of time but that time has been uneasy for a lot of the staff.

“However they have stuck by it and demonstrated their commitment to it and been absolutely superb”

All 671 sites of the London and Edinburgh Swallow Group, employing 7,300 people, continued to trade after going into administration back in September.

Within two weeks' administrators Ernst and Young had sold 240 sites, securing the jobs of some 2,500 people.

However 220 jobs were lost when the decision was taken to close five hotels and 15 managed pubs at the end of September.

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