After pumping more than $23 million into Almond Village in the past 12 months, Neal & Massy’s board of directors rejected any proposal to put in millions more to upgrade and capitalize the faltering hotel group.
Shareholders in the Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate had already expressed frustration at previous annual general meetings that Almond’s growing losses in Barbados were pulling down group profits.
And Neal & Massy’s president and chief executive officer, Gervase Warner, who delivered the bad news Tuesday that the flagship 400-room Almond Village would close at monthend, told the DAILY NATION that Almond needed $40 to $50 million more to upgrade the facility and make it viable again.
“Not having that hotel experience . . . for us to see a further path in tourism did not get past our board of directors,” he revealed.
And their having approved the spending of millions in the local all-inclusive brand, Warner said: “The proposal of $40 to $50 million to upgrade the Village did not get the support of our board.”
Read the full story in today’s DAILY NATION.
