Stafford owner Britannia Hospitality acquires Northcote

Britannia Hospitality, which owns the Stafford London hotel, has acquired Northcote, the luxury Lancashire hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Managing director Craig Bancroft confirmed that he, general manager Craig Jackson and executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen would be remaining at the hotel and continuing their bid for a second Michelin star, as was announced on Northcote’s sale of Ribble Valley Inns last year.

He said: “We want to make sure that everyone understands we’re all staying and we’re much looking forward to working alongside the Stafford management team and developing Northcote further and that was the whole point of the deal.

“We’ll let everyone know once everyone’s decided strategically where we’re going forward because there’s no point in doing that until we’ve discussed it with the teams involved.

“It was the right partner in terms of the synergy between a really iconic London property to be paired up with a country house hotel that has got such a fabulous backstory.

“A hotel like the Stafford to take on a Northcote is quite an amazing story.”

A spokesperson for Britannia said: “We look forward to working with the team at Northcote to continue to drive the performance of the hotel and deliver the exceptional experiences for which the hotel is known.”

Bancroft, winner of the 2016 Cateys Wine and Spirit Ambassador Award and mentor to Stafford general manager Stuart Procter, was named 2016 Hotelier of the Year.

When he was announced as the recipient of the accolade executive director of Iconic Luxury Hotels Andrew Stembridge described him as overcoming “a variety of hurdles to create the Mecca that is Northcote”.

Northcote is a member of Pride of Britain and Relais & Chateaux. It was named the AA Hotel of the Year for England 2016-17. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 1996 under then chef-patron Nigel Haworth, which it has retained ever since, now with executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen at the helm.