(Barbados Nation) As Trinidad conglomerate Neal & Massy continues its search for an Almond Resorts buyer, the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) is warning of serious consequences if the three Barbadian hotels are allowed to fail.
The Almond Group accounts for more than 600 hotel rooms, hundreds of workers and is an important segment of the market for airline charters.
Stressing that Almond represented an entity that was “too big to fail”, president of the BHTA, Colin Jordan, said Almond was “the kind of product needed by the country”.
Almond, an all-inclusive group, became a Neal & Massy subsidiary after its parent company, Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) was taken over by the Trinidadian conglomerate in 2008.
However, the hotel group has been hit by four years of persistent losses, with Neal & Massy and another investor – Goddard Enterprises Limited (GEL) – forced to write off nearly $50 million in losses between them.
Neal & Massy sold Almond Morgan Bay in St Lucia last December but Almond Casuarina Beach in Christ Church, Almond Beach Village in St Peter and Almond Beach Club in St James, remain for sale or an investment partner.
