Former chef Bill and his wife started the business in 1988, when they bought their first venue, the Highgrove House Hotel, in Troon, Ayrshire. Since then they have expanded their portfolio to include nine award-winning hotels, restaurants and Patisseries. Bill, a former chairman of Kilmarnock Football Club, is passionate about art and also a keen artist himself. A Master Chef at 21 and the first Scot to win a gold medal at the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, he prides himself on attention to detail. Costley & Costley is very much a family-run business, with the couple’s son, Andrew, working alongside them as Executive Head Chef. Bill is always eager to nurture talent, develop new ideas and skills and keep Ayrshire at the forefront of the hospitality industry in Scotland.The group’s motto – Ad Virtutem Nitens, which means ‘the pursuit of excellence’ – is inscribed on the gates of their flagship five-star venue, Lochgreen House in Troon, as a constant reminder of their daily endeavour to exceed the expectations of each guest. Plans for expansion include extending Lochgreen to include luxury Spa treatment rooms, with the first phase opening in May 2017, and the ‘wet’ side of things to follow, with further developments of a function suite and more bedrooms, to accommodate the growing demand for a complete luxury hotel experience. The Brig o’ Doon House Hotel, with its iconic setting in Robert Burns country, has also undergone some recent refurbishments. Today the hotel group has 68 bedrooms, employs more than 350 staff and turnover last year was £14 million.