Hotel Football, the hospitality chain owned by Manchester United icons Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, has lost £3.2million over the last two years and owes more than £10m in loans.
Giggs started the business with Neville back in 2011 after retiring from football. Now annual accounts for the business - which were filed this week - show the hotel, which is based near Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, lost heaps of cash in 2020 and 2021 after suffering from the Covid pandemic.
The documents, as first reported on by the Daily Star, reveal the firm had pulled a restaurant from the National Museum of Football to save cash. Accounts show that the company behind the business – called Old Trafford Supporters Club Ltd – lost £1,148,879 in 2021 and £2,042,812 the previous year during the pandemic.
The company, while unable to operate during the Covid pandemic, continued to pay its workers throughout and opened up the building for the NHS to use free of charge.
Giggs' fellow director Neville said in comments attached to the figures that trading had not been 'normal' as the business had been 'hit drastically' by lockdown restrictions which had 'affected the financial figures' throughout the pandemic.
Neville also alluded to the fact that the business was still contending with issues in the wake of the pandemic, with inflation costs rising rapidly. But he added: "The directors have continued their policy of investing in the hotel to improve operational performance and to promote the Hotel Football brand even post the pandemic year.
"The directors feel that whatever the case the quality of the brand and of the property they manage cannot be sacrificed.’’
After stressing that the figures for 2022 were 'very encouraging' as life reverts back to normality, Neville said the firm’s parent company Orchid Leisure Ltd had loaned the hotel business £10.2m to help it survive.
"Based on the above the directors are confident that the company will have sufficient funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due for at least the next 12 months,’’ he added.
Neville set up the Old Trafford Supporters Club in 2012 before Giggs joined him as a fellow director four months later. The pair progressed through the ranks at Manchester United together as part of the group known as 'The Class of 92'.
