Guile takes the chief executive's suite at Macdonald Hotels

DONALD Macdonald has handed over the reins of Scotland’s biggest private hotels company to his deputy as the eponymous group provided a bullish trading outlook for the year ahead.

David Guile, 43, steps up from his deputy role to become chief executive of Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, while Gordon Fraser, 50, will take on the deputy post alongside his existing finance director function.

Macdonald, 61, who cofounded the Bathgatebased business in 1990, maintains his role as executive chairman.

The group, which operates 48 four and fivestar hotels across the UK and Spain, was floated on the stock market in 1996. It returned to private ownership in 2003 in one of Scotland’s biggest publictoprivate deals at a cost of about £600 million.

Bank of Scotland, which backed the deal, owns 50 per cent of the equity.

Guile described the step up to chief executive as "a natural progression", having taken on "more and more of the daytoday business" since his appointment as deputy in March 2006. He said: "I am delighted to have been given this new role and look forward to developing the business."

Macdonald said the boardroom changes marked "another watershed" in the company’s history.

"David and Gordon have, over recent years, made a major contribution to the success of our company, successfully steering us from public back to private and helping to consolidate our position as one of the leading private hotel brands in the UK," he added.

Guile admitted that economic conditions remained "challenging" but said the group would maintain its focus on the upper end of the hotels market.

"We remain optimistic about trading, which has been quite encouraging over the last couple of months," he said. "There are pockets of very strong trading in Scotland.

"Because we trade more in the four and fivestar market we’re hoping that our strategy of aiming for quality is going to pay off."

The group, which is behind controversial proposals to expand the Aviemore Highland resort, confirmed that Peter Murphy would maintain his role as managing director in Scotland.