Shepherd retires
26 September 2002 by CG
Self-made millionaire and former miner Gordon Shepherd has retired having sold his two hotels in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire.
Shepherd is best known in the catering industry for buying the then-ailing equipment company Viscount Catering in the early 1990s. He sold the business in 1999 for just over £10m and, at the age of 63, acquired two former Posthouse hotels.
He bought the 52-bedroom Humber Royal in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and the 95-bedroom Humber Crown in Hull, East Yorkshire, for about £3.2m.
Elizabeth Hotels, which has 21 hotels, mainly in East Anglia, has bought the two through agent Christie & Co for about £4.5m. They have been renamed Hotel Elizabeth Grimsby and Hotel Elizabeth Hull.
