SUSAN YOUNG talks to Kellie Rixon MBE. The woman tasked with getting Aberdeen hotel Marcliffe back on track.
Kellie Rixon MBE FIH is one of those rare people you meet once and remember forever. Bursting with industry wisdom and infectious energy, this spirited Liverpudlian has brought her sparkle to Aberdeen’s Marcliffe hotel. Though her role is General Manager, Kellie’s presence is more orchestra conductor than job title – seamlessly blending charm, leadership, and a touch of magic into everything she does.
It comes as no surprise that Kellie and Stephen Carter, Non Executive Director of Marcliffe, share a bond that stretches back over 20 years. She counts him not only as a mentor but as a true friend – and it’s easy to see why. They’re cut from the same cloth.
Hospitality isn’t just their profession, it’s in their DNA – and Stephen is the reason that Kellie is now at Marcliffe. I sat down with her in the hotel, which has literally become her home over the last six months and which has been rebranded Marcliffe.
Kellie met Stephen Carter when they both worked for De Vere. Says Kellie, “We were a young dynamic, crazy team, and Stephen was the old guy – he probably was the same age I am now!
‘However I quickly realised that there is not anything that he doesn’t know about the sector and one of the key lessons I have learned in life is – if there is someone who has been there, seen it and done it, pay attention. I paid attention and I listened.
“He became a massive influence on my career and is a mentor too, but I am also lucky enough to call him my friend. He is someone I cherish, but he will also tell me it straight and I do butt heads with him on occasion – you need that cut and thrust in life. He is my work dad, in fact he is everyone’s work dad in many ways.”
It was after a phone call from Stephen at the end of last year that Kellie made the trip from her home in the North of England to Aberdeen. She explains, “I had just started to rebuild this old house, after almost knocking it down, when Stephen called me. He knew that for the latter part of my career I had focussed on organisational change, cultural change programmes and mergers and acquisitions.
“He said, ‘Marcliffe is a new acquisition; there is shift in terms of culture – in that it was previously run by a long established owner/operator Stuart Spence, and they need someone to come for a few weeks and support that change.’”
She smiles, “He is a hard man to say no to.”
That was December, and not long after she came on board, the hotel parted ways with its General Manager and Kellie was asked to hold the fort in the interim until the Board decided on the next step.
She reveals, “By that time I had kind of fallen in love with the hotel. I could see the potential but it was certainly not my intention to be a General Manager again.”
But as the months passed she grew more and more committed to the project and admitted to her husband she wanted to see the project through. She says, “I didn’t want to pass the job on particularly since I had got so much off the ground, but the job is also so much wider than the role of General Manager and so much broader. I could see the value in that.”
One of the very first things she instigated was a new training programme called Shine. She explains, “When I came to Aberdeen it was really grey including the hotel, but everyone said that Aberdeen is famous for its granite and when the sun hits it, it shines. I thought we just need to shine the light on our people.
“We decided to close for two weeks and set our stall out and explain our agenda. I felt we needed a reset but we needed to be respectful of the past, and we needed to articulate the path for the future, otherwise we would be living in the past. We made things really simple and clear.
“Everyone was put through the training programme which laid out our mission, vision and values. But we also got staff involved in a series of workshops, including the board. We wanted everyone to be really honest and transparent and let us know what they thought worked at Marcliffe.
“We needed to know what to retain and what baggage to let go of. You can’t get to the destination unless you know where it is and although I don’t mind detours, the intention is clear – to make Marcliffe the most cherished and loved hotel in Scotland. So that means we need to be consistent and deliver what our customers want so they get value out of it”.
She continues, “Shine sets out our non-negotiables. I am going to pay you, give you the tools to do the job, and ensure you are treated with respect and dignity, but for that you need to do your job -bring hospitality, serve customers, work a shift, and work as a team. I say, ‘You do your bit and I’ll do my bit.’
“This makes it sound a bit transactional but it isn’t. My expectation is that if a customer walks in here they are no 1.
“We will give eye contact, we will engage – someone that doesn’t put the customer at the top of their agenda is not negotiable to me. We don’t want robots, or talklines, we want staff to bring their own personality to the job and when we need to, we all roll up our sleeves and get stuck in – we are a team.”
Kellie doesn’t just talk the talk -she walks it too. She ran the pass on Father’s Day and has done just about every job in a hotel, even though she thought those days were behind her.
She laughs, “Because I live on-site, some days I don’t even get out of the hotel. Because if I love it, I’m in it. I’m up to my neck in it and swimming around in it. So I don’t mind it at all.”
She smiles, “I could go in every department. I have spent years understanding this industry and to be back in an operational role blows my mind.”
Kellie’s story is a bit like a Barbara Bradford novel -one that features women who rise from humble beginnings to achieve great things. Hospitality wasn’t a career choice – it was her life. Born into a working-class family – her mum ran a café, her dad was a milkman. She helped out with both, working in the café and getting up early to help her dad with the round.
She says, “I came from a very humble beginning and we were grafters.”
She worked weekends from the age of 14, pouring pints in a local bar, and put herself through college working in late-night venues, bars and restaurants while she studied drama. Then, at 18, she joined the entertainment team at a holiday park. A 12-week Redcoat job turned into five years. “I said I’d stay for the summer – five summers later, I was still there. This has definitely become my MO.”
By 21, she was running entertainment departments with weekly show schedules, recruiting teams, and ensuring every guest left smiling. It was “do it again, do it again” every week — high-intensity, high-stakes hospitality training that no degree could match.
Kellie reveals, “Hospitality gave me a route out from my humble beginnings. Hospitality really is a level playing field -in loads of sectors not going to university would have been a disadvantage and for years, I was embarrassed at my lack of higher education. But hospitality never questioned it -they said, ‘You are good at your job, we like you, keep doing it.’”
And keep doing it she did… From entertainment, she moved onto pubs, joining Tetley, where she looked after pubs from Bolton to Stafford. “I thought it would be an easier life, but was just about the geography.
“Instead of moving around the country, I just moved within a region. I worked in the managed house estate – that was my first foray into general management. I looked after big food operations like Wacky Warehouse. I started off in Bolton, Warrington, then Stafford, then Derby and took on a regional role.
“The last one was a hotel – it taught me about volume – we were doing 800 covers a day, and it taught me all the things you need to know about commercial aspects of space i.e. revenue per sq. ft. and all that sort of good important stuff.”
Tetley became part of Marston’s and Kellie was retained, got promoted, and became a regional trainer, manager, then regional director. In that role, she was responsible for 25 units, managing all aspects of operations with a focus on team dynamics and service.
Then followed a move into HR. “I found it a really interesting transition because I went into HR because I was a frustrated operator and wanted good service from a support function.”
Principal Hayley followed and in 2005 she moved to De Vere as Head of Learning. She adds, “I was on heritage deluxe side and then became HR Director, then Brand Director where I was responsible for anything had the De Vere name on it -from marketing, brand development, communication, PR, people.
“Anything that represented the brand at that stage and new developments, anything that was repositioned or redeveloped, that included Slaley Hall and Cameron House where I met Stephen Carter, was my remit. I loved it.”
But it was a recruitment trip to Lausanne in Switzerland that made Kellie realise where her passion was. “I was there to recruit people and I was listening to them talking and I thought I would never get a job here, I would never even get in the door. But I was the one doing the interviewing.
“I thought who are we looking for here, but we were not looking for people like me. They were all well trained, but also quite privileged and it dawned on me that I had lost a little bit of myself. I thought why are we not looking for people like me?
“I went back to the UK and decided to make a concentrated effort to build a scheme that tackles the bridge between those kids on the outside of society into hospitality – after all, I was the pin-up girl! Everyone is motivated by something – people will put the graft in if it gives them what they want. Whether they are motivated by money, development or career enhancement, having a good time at work, or being with their friends – there are factors that contribute to people’s happiness.
“These kids did not want a job in hospitality because no one had spoken to these kids from hospitality. I did try to get a few colleges but their response was ‘they all sound like difficult kids, they will never turn up!’
“I sat down with my team and we decided that De Vere would do it ourselves and we became a training provider. We took in 12 students from Stockport on the promise of a better life.
“I recruited people by going to talk to people in community and sports centres. I was only ever asked two questions when I said come and work in hospitality – ‘Have you met anyone famous?’ and ‘What car do you drive?’ I said a Range Rover with a fridge and they were impressed. They said, ‘You are telling me even coming from a council estate you could be driving around with a Range Rover with a fridge in?’
“We mixed education with work and it worked beautifully. It was a great balance and the council loved it and we started to make a difference. Then we did cohort 2 and cohort 3, then we opened a school in Liverpool, followed by Coventry and London. We grew it to 12 schools with 2,500 students on the programme at any one time.
“In 2012, at its peak, 13,000 students had come through its books and 60% had jobs at the end. It became a monster and as I had decided this was what I really wanted to do we decided to embark on a management buyout to take it out of De Vere. I had found my passion – developing people.
“It was both the best year of my life and the worst. I got two fellowships and an MBE and everything was wonderful. I thought I’ve made it, bob on. That was October 25 and then on December 5 my life changed catastrophically.”
Driving home from her mother-in-law’s funeral with her kids in the car -her husband had stayed behind -Kellie was involved in a hit-and-run accident which saw her car shunted down an embankment and into the path of a train which hit them.
Kellie recounts, “In an instant that life was gone – everything we knew. My older son walks away, I had minor injuries but my baby, who was 12, hit his head and suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
“We were airlifted out, and he spent four months in a coma and eight months in hospital on life support for most of it. The prognosis was not good. We were told he was never going to get any better, that he would never get out of his bed.
“Now no two brain injuries are the same so we believed -there is always an opportunity, potential in there. We couldn’t give up. For me and for the rest of my family it was really simple – we were never going to get the best outcome through lack of hard work.
“So we just put the hard work in. We thought we will do whatever it takes, we are all in. My boy made an amazing recovery although he still requires 24 hour care, he is ambulant, he walks, he has a full life. He will always have challenges, and the life he was destined for has moved away, but the life he was told he was going to have never materialised.
“Somehow he has forged this beautiful little existence and he is a positive, determined and incredible and funny 24-year-old. The impact on me has been profound its meant I am determined to never waste a moment of my life again.”
After the accident, Kellie bought a shop that she converted into a three story restaurant, but quickly realised it was too much when she was still caring for her son. She decided to move back up North to be nearer family and shortly afterwards she was approached by Donald MacDonald.
Says Kellie, “It came right out of the blue. Over a cup of tea he told me that he had known about me for years. Richard Balfour-Lynn who I worked for when I was Brand Director, used to put me anywhere there was a problem with any brand he had – whether Liberty or Greens – he would drop me in to work out what was wrong and solve the issue.
“He had told Donald that. Donald said to me, ‘I thought there and then I need a Kellie. So I followed your career, and then I heard about the accident.’
“He went onto say that he thought it was time I went back to work. I will always be grateful to him. He gave me this wonderful opportunity to come back into life, back into my career, in a way that was manageable – so that it was respectful of my boy and the care I was giving to him, but it also got me back into work.
“I went in as a consultant first, then as HR Director and latterly as Brand Director again. So as usual I go in as a part-timer and five months later I am up to my neck in it. I spent a few years with Macdonald appreciating the work and loving the people there.
“But for me the employed status was not where I need to be. I needed the flexibility of working for myself. I needed to be able to say my boy is having a bad week this week, so I need to be at home – and you can’t do that in employment.
“So it was out of necessity that I set up my consultancy rather than it being what I wanted to do. But it turned out to be the best thing ever. I consulted for Macdonald – in fact Donald offered to buy every day I had, but I said that’s not the way I need to do it.
“I built a business that only worked by referrals. It was incredibly private because I tended to go into businesses going through change. I spent 12 years doing that and loved it. I never lost a client. Worked for all the big operators and went in at an executive level.
“I spent 8 years with the Old Course, St Andrews, five years with a project with the Heineken family -they had a beautiful pub on their land with rooms, and that came with another pub and another – we ended up with 28 pubs which we sold out the year before last. And at that stage I thought that was a nice exit so I started slowly winding down into retirement.
“I was still getting calls and I did special jobs for people such as holding the HR directors role at the Old Course for three months last year -I just picked projects that aligned with my values, and that I thought were interesting. Then I got the call from Stephen…”
Stephen told her that Sir Jim Milne and Balmoral Group had bought The Marcliffe as part of a strategic move to diversify and because they loved it and persuaded Kellie to come and meet them. The rest is history.
Today, as we speak, The Marcliffe has been rebranded Marcliffe with a classy new emblem with Kellie at its helm.
Kellie says, “The people of Aberdeen have a deep affection for Marcliffe. It’s a place that’s been forgiven for not always being where it should be, simply because it means so much to so many. That kind of loyalty is rare.
“What’s even rarer is the scale of investment being made in hospitality right now. Not many, if any businesses are committing at this level. That speaks volumes about Sir Jim’s desire to give back to Aberdeen, and Balmoral Group’s belief in investing in things that matter, not just commercially, but culturally and emotionally too.
“I’ve learned Aberdeen needs Marcliffe, and Marcliffe needs the people of Aberdeen. That relationship is very important. That sense of ‘it has not been right, but we have to fix it’ is about respecting its legacy but looking at where we are at the moment and where we need to be.
“Jim is successful for a reason. He sees what is important, and he knew Marcliffe was important to the people of Aberdeen. If he hadn’t bought it, who would have? Who would have invested and created the best five-star hotel in the North East? I think he felt there was a moral obligation.”
The Balmoral Group has invested £12m+ in the hotel, and that is just the start.
The reception area has already been revamped. Its South Lawn, the sunniest part of the hotel, has been irrigated and turned into a lovely spot for outdoor events and weddings, with an outdoor bar, and a cigar shack is on order. A new whisky snug has been created in what was formerly its snooker room -its opening was imminent when I visited.
Kellie also gave me a tour of the new South Corner Suites -which will be ready in August -two bridal/ executive suites with an extra room. But the pièce de résistance will be the hotel’s new Brasserie, located in what was the hotel’s external courtyard, right in the centre of the property. It will open in December and offer a more casual-style restaurant serving cocktails and great food. The hotel is also investing in its kitchen too.
Kellie explains, “Balmoral Group are willing to spend the money where it matters and are modernising the offer. This is only phase one, but it is important to enable us to cherish our existing clients but also to attract new customers to sustain us.” The hotel is also operating during the renovations.
Kellie reveals, “We daren’t close again. The last time it was only two weeks but Marcliffe’s customers felt like it was six months, so we are trading through it. But our elevated service levels will hopefully mask some of the disruption. I am definitely spinning plates, but I love a bit of chaos.”
I don’t know about loving chaos, but Kellie definitely loves hospitality – and hospitality loves her. Marcliffe is in very good hands. Bob on Kellie.
