With a past that is swathed in mystery, the rise to prominence of the Von Essen hotel group mirrors the developing visibility of its chairman – Andrew Davis, lawyer, artist and friend to the stars.
Andrew Davis, the man behind luxury hotel group Von Essen, is the type of businessman that people outside his circle don’t quite understand. But a little bit of mystery never did a company too much harm.
In fact, for Von Essen, it has helped to fill pages and pages of newspapers and magazines. And while some might think that the 46-year-old’s early elusiveness when it came to meeting with journalists was a PR disaster, others may credit his enigmatic nature for the fact that Von Essen has sprung from virtual anonymity in the late 1990s/early 2000s to its current position as arguably one of the best-known private luxury hotel groups in the UK.
The group now has 30 hotels here and one in France, which, according to its most recently filed accounts, have a value of £320m (p43). And although the credit crunch has not passed Von Essen by completely, Davis says that it is keen to increase its investment this year to “ensure that the group maintains and improves its competitive advantage within the luxury market”.
The story that the group was founded with the help of a mysterious aunt, the Countess von Essen, also helps to keep people’s tongues wagging. The countess does exist, of course, and no doubt did provide some funds for the group, but a quick whiz through Companies House reveals that many of its hotels have been funded by cash obtained through a much more traditional (and boring) route – loans from major banks, including Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Having overcome his initial wariness of the press, Davis now projects a more vibrant persona, openly dropping the names of celebrities who have stayed at hotels in the collection, and throwing massive shindigs for some of the biggest names in showbiz.
In 2007, for example, he hosted a £500,000 party for Dame Shirley Bassey’s 70th birthday. It was attended by more than 500 guests, including designers Julien McDonald and Matthew Williamson and entertainers Bruce Forsyth, Cilla Black, Rolf Harris and Joan Collins.
Davis trained in commercial law, specialising in antiques and fine arts. His love for such objects is still clearly evident in the decor in his hotels.
Between 1986 and 1992, he worked as a legal director and in-house counsel to a major fine art house and started to invest in property. By 2000, he had built up a portfolio of three hotels – Mount Somerset in Taunton, Congham Hall in Norfolk, and New Park Manor in Hampshire.
But it wasn’t until 2002, when Davis bought the long leasehold to Cliveden House in Berkshire, the scene of the Profumo affair, that the West Country-based businessman began to be noticed in the hotel fraternity – and beyond.
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
