It’s an exciting time for the team at Crossbasket Castle as it gets set to unveil its transformation. Susan Young caught up with Managing Director Graeme Green to find out more about its plans and the man leading the team.
When Graeme Green was 17, his family moved back to Scotland from Johannesburg and his father told him to go and get a job. He did, in a local hotel, and that decision transformed his life.
His links with the company he started out with have remained throughout the ensuing years, as he is now Managing Director of five-star Crossbasket Castle, an ICMI managed property owned by entrepreneurs Steve and Alison Timoney.
For South African-born Graeme, it was a shock to the system when his family moved back to Scotland. He told me, “My mum and dad decided to retire to Fort William, and my dad told me I needed to get a job, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life, so I applied for the kitchen porter’s job at Inverlochy Castle.”
Says Graeme, “I started when Michael Leonard was there, one of the old-school veterans of Scottish hospitality, and I really enjoyed it. When you are a teenager and go into that kitchen environment, it is really like being a pirate when it comes to the feeling of camaraderie, and back then it was Simon Haigh who was head chef.
“He was a hard taskmaster; he was right up there with the best and got his first Michelin star there. To be honest, I had no idea what a star was and really was oblivious to what the industry had to offer.
“In fact, it was a good couple of years before I realised that I did really enjoy it and wanted to stay in it. “Pretty early on, I realised I didn’t want to be a chef, despite the fact I enjoyed the kitchen environment.
“I’m not quite sure when I decided to try front of house. A couple of previous kitchen porters had become gardeners, and the gardening team were keen to get me on board, but I really didn’t want to work outside with the midges – so I took a position with the front of house team.”
During his time at Inverlochy he did just about every job – from hall porter to waiter, senior waiter, and night porter. He progressed to duty manager and then assistant manager.
Says Graeme, “I was incredibly fortunate. Every step of the way, I was supported and encouraged by the team at Inverlochy. I also saw the hotel go through a lot of changes over the 10 years I was there.”
He certainly did. When Graeme joined Inverlochy Castle, it was owned by the Hobbs family and run by Michael Leonard; then the Chai family bought it, and Michael Leonard left. Norbert Lieder replaced him, and it was Lieder and the management team who set up the hotel management company ICMI in 2009.
Graeme comments, “As the company grew, my opportunities grew, and it has been the same for many of my colleagues. Some, including David Robertson, who is now GM at Inverlochy, have come up the same route. He too started as hotel porter.
“There are others too, including Kerry Watson and Nicky Gillies, who are now both in the Ops team. We have all worked in different hotels together over the years and I think it is quite unique that ICMI has hung on to so many people over the years.
“There are now two generational teams – the old school (us) and there is another generation below us in the company who are coming through. Some of us have hired them. It is quite interesting.”
He admits, “I did leave the company for a couple of years and joined The Point in New York. Just prior to that, I had left Inverlochy to open Rocpool Reserve in Inverness with Albert Roux. He was a great influence on my career. I went there because I was in limbo, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
By that time Graeme had been 10 years at Inverlochy and had an urge to go overseas, but he could find a post that interested him. So, ICMI suggested he open the Chez Roux restaurant at Rocpool in Inverness. He says, “I agreed to stay for 18 months and get it up and running and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
However, he still kept an eye out for a job abroad and then one came up. He explains, “Back then Relais & Châteaux used to have job boards, and I applied to The Point in New York. I didn’t know a lot about it, but I quickly found out it was a new brand. It was a ‘great camp’ resort. Back in the 1920s, the rich and wealthy had rustic yet luxurious retreat summer homes, which they called Great Camps, and The Point had been the Rockefellers’ Great Camp.
“There were 11 rooms, 67 staff, and communal dining – it was all-inclusive, and back then, the average room rate was $1,800 a night. The Point was also a hideout for celebrities because there was no Wi-Fi or phones.”
He also recalls how it was only after he arrived there that he was told that Albert Roux had set up the kitchen 20 years previously at The Point, and that he had been instrumental in Graeme getting the job.
He says, “He never mentioned it to me before I left!
“It really was a unique job. I saw things there I’d never seen before. For example, if guests went hiking, you had two guys hiking in front of them, lighting fires and setting a picnic for them. We also had several different boats; we sometimes would drive around the lake looking for guests to offer champagne to. This was one of the reasons I got my Captain’s licence. In fact, I technically could still take 60 people on a boat in New York!”
He continues, “All the dinners at The Point were hosted and as the assistant manager that was one of my roles. I would be sitting with multi-millionaires or movie stars, having random conversations. You never knew who was going to be at these tables – it was really fabulous. I think they took the concept from the Game Reserves in Africa.
“You had to host lunch and dinner four to five times a week, which was split between the two managers. That’s a lot of eating, especially as the dinner had seven courses. It did take its toll but I enjoyed it though.
“The customer service ethos was quite something, and my GM there was exceptional. She had a whole different approach to customer service and was very aggressive with it. Her favourite thing was ‘moments of magic’. She would gather the entire team every morning and ask us all what moments of magic we had created the previous day for guests and asked us what we were planning for that day. It was fabulous.
“The whole mindset was that your goal was to create a moment of magic, and it was the same for the whole team, from the kitchen porter to the kitchen to back of house – everyone was involved, and everyone just went for it. She was also a lot of fun, and she made it a lot of fun. I like to think that I have carried some of that magic with me.
“The great thing about hotels is that people go there to have a good time, and if you can create an environment where your team members, as well as your guests, have a good time, that can be quite magical.”
Graeme was newly married when he went to the States, and when his visa was up, the choice was to renew it or come back.
He explains, “My wife is Hungarian, and she wanted to be nearer her family in Europe. ICMI reached out to me at the same time that my boss at The Point asked if I wanted to extend my visa… but after a call with Norbert Leider, I decided to come back to work in Operations with ICMI. The added attraction was that I could live anywhere in Scotland.”
However, although Graeme enjoyed being back, he didn’t enjoy working in operations as much as he thought he would.
He says, “My role in Ops was to support our hotel GMs and also to ensure that the business’s objectives were being met. I was part of the Ops team, but I never really felt part of the individual teams at each hotel, and as one of my favourite parts of the job was developing people, I didn’t quite get that satisfaction in the Ops role.”
After four years of travelling between hotels in the role, the decision by Andy Murray to buy Cromlix Hotel proved timely. Explains Graeme, “ICMI had just done an assessment on the hotel for the Eden family, who owned it, and when Andy bought the hotel, he looked at the assessment and decided to appoint ICMI. They then appointed me as General Manager. It was my first GM role, and it suited me because my daughter had just been born, and I wanted to do less travelling. I absolutely loved it.”
He admits, “The beginning was really hard as it was a real learning curve. Nobody expected it to be as busy as it was and of course this was because of the Andy factor. I also didn’t quite grasp the PR side when I joined Cromlix. Everything that happens there is a news story, good or bad.
“It was really busy, but because it was really busy, we managed to keep the consistency really high. This is unique for a country house hotel. If you are busy all the time, you are constantly working, and keeping people engaged is hugely important.
“At Cromlix, you had a lot of customers keeping you engaged all the time. Luckily, I had a good team, and a lot of the team stayed with me for the full 10 years I was there.”
During the pandemic Graeme was tasked with looking after the hotel. He tells me, “The building had never been closed before, so the Executive chef, Darin Campbell, and I rotated in and out. I certainly learned to appreciate the surroundings of the hotel and the quiet moments that I had never appreciated before.
“For instance, sitting on the front lawn, reading a book and listening to birds, plus I got to cook in an industrial kitchen. We even played chess, and we all got to compare notes on TV shows which we never normally got the opportunity to see. It was a surreal experience.”
It was at Cromlix that Graeme also got the opportunity to really develop his young staff into managers, junior managers, and senior managers. However, just over two years ago he made the decision to leave.
He says, “It was probably the toughest career decision I have ever made. I loved it there, but the Murrays had decided to go independent, and although they were supportive of me staying, I knew Crossbasket was a possibility.” ICMI introduced him to the owners of Crossbasket, Steve and Alison Timoney.
Says Graeme, “They told me that they had a vision for Crossbasket and planned to invest £20m creating something special. Their plans really impressed me.”
Crossbasket Castle sits within 14 acres, and it has been operating with nine bedrooms and two lodges. Says Graeme, “We do about 45–60 weddings a year, and it has been a very successful wedding venue and small hotel. But the lack of rooms had to be addressed, and so the owners decided to redevelop the site. The decision was made some time ago, but planning took a while.”
When I caught up with Graeme, there were only a few weeks to go before the launch of the £20m redevelopment on the 16th of March, and there were certainly plenty of finishing touches going on. The transformation will see 40 new luxury rooms and two new restaurants added. One of which is Trocadero’s, which will be run under the watchful eye of renowned Chef Michel Roux and which will deliver a live performance experience for guests.
The other restaurant is more laidback and will offer the likes of breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea. There will also be additional lodges which will be ready later in the year – and a boutique spa down by the riverside.
Graeme comments, “Obviously, ICMI has a longstanding association with the Roux family, and it is great to continue that relationship with Michel.” He adds “Trocadero’s will be an entertainment-led restaurant which has been inspired by the likes of Quaglino’s in London and the Mayfair Supper Club in Las Vegas. We have designed it with a view to offering great food, service, and live entertainment. I think this will suit the local market and it is unlike anything Scotland has to offer at the moment.
“The entertainment side will be mixed, but like in most other hospitality businesses, it will be low-key during the week and will be more upbeat at the weekends. We have a variety of entertainment planned, including big bands, but it will certainly evolve over time depending on the customer.” Certainly Graeme is relishing the challenge and clearly loves hospitality.
I asked him why he loved the industry? He shared, “One of the great things about hospitality is that there are so many routes into it, and you never know where you will end up. If you had asked me at 17 if I could see myself in senior management, I would have said no. But ICMI and Norbert Lieder invested in my career and for that I am very grateful.
“Norbert and I have worked together for 20 years, and I probably see him more than I would like to, and he sees me less than he would like to! When he sent me to Cornell University 14 years ago to go on the Managers programme, it was tremendous.
“In fact, I would like to go back and do the Managers programme again because hospitality has moved on so much. But of the 30 people I did the course with, at least half I am still in touch with, and they have been an invaluable source of advice over the years, especially during Covid.”
I asked him what the best bit of advice he had ever been given was, he says, “If I had to single it down to one thing it would have to be, look after your people; that is the advice that I have had the best results from. If you look after your team, they look after your guests, and that looks after your bottom line.”
As for the best advice he has to offer for someone starting out in hospitality, he smiles, “That would be talk to your guests, engage with them. For instance, you can find out more about a guest when checking them into a hotel. In that 10 minutes you have together you can find out what they are looking for to make their stay an exceptional one. Let the guests guide you. Otherwise, it becomes a delivery service, and hospitality is more than that.”
That said, he also believes that it shows a certain “naivety” if you don’t pay attention to reviews saying, “Reviews are important and the statistics are clear – 1 in 3 will say if something is wrong and 99.9% of complaints are valid. I can’t stand when people say, ‘they are at it.’
“It is hugely valuable information that you get on the review platforms. You are really naive if you are not looking at all this information, and being honest with yourself, but it is also important not to take criticism personally.”
Certainly Graeme is looking forward to the launch of the new look Crossbasket on the 16th March, but he also believes there is more to come.
“The owners have a vision to deliver something quite special here and across the board. They also own the Caledonian Gladiators and we do their catering, so I see our involvement with the basketball team developing too. I haven’t quite figured out why I find keep finding myself with links to sport. With Andy Murray I learned a lot about tennis, and now I am learning a lot about basketball.”
He is also now able to do what he loves most – developing people. He says, “I am constantly looking at our younger team and finding plans to help them develop their career with us. That’s when it is great to be part of ICMI – if we don’t have the right development opportunity here, there is another eight hotels.”
He concludes, “It is an exciting time, and I don’t see where it stops.”
Neither do I.