‘Laid back luxury‘ at Lime Wood


Lime Wood‘s reputation precedes it, but this is just one element in a highly- successful leisure and hospitality venture. David Elton, director of the Lime Wood Group and partner in Home Grown Hotels, met Sue Hughes to talk about the Group‘s evolution


The blend of luxury chic and a magnificent setting in the heart of the New Forest National Park draws discerning customers to Lime Wood, people who like their five-star luxury served without pretension but with a contemporary twist.


The highly-successful Lime Wood Group, which announced the appointment of Angela Harnett to the board at the end of 2014, is much more than a sought-after boutique hotel.


The Group is successful on several levels. It includes The Pig brand, which has expanded beyond the Solent region at Brockenhurst, Southampton and Studland, to Bath – as well as Portetta hotel, lofts and mountain lodges in Courcheval.


Lime Wood Group blends the extensive energy, peerless good taste and business nous of group director David Elton, formerly CEO of Leonardo Media and an executive director of Starwood and Ritz-Carlton, and his business partner and CEO Robin Hutson, the co-founder and chairman of Hotel du Vin. Jim Ratcliffe owns Lime Wood and Portetta solely, and is the majority shareholder for The Pig Hotels (Home Grown Hotels).


Elton explained that the pair ‘kind of fell into it‘ overseeing the £30-million Lime Wood redevelopment six years ago for Ratcliffe, while The Pig was the former Whitley Ridge Hotel – an asset in serious need of a revamp – in its case a particularly radical one, to become an upscale/shabby chic ‘restaurant with rooms‘ serving superb kitchen garden food with produce sourced from within 25 miles.


The Pigs are a healthy, thriving litter. The Pig in the Wall is set within Southampton‘s medieval walls, while The Pig on the Beach at Studland has seen bookings go


Consistency of product comes at a price when a hotel chain grows too large, which is why Elton values the vibrancy of developing their young team, recognising that if they are happy working, their customers are also enjoying themselves.


With 350 staff across Lime Wood Group, it is the largest hospitality employer in the New Forest. “You have got to over-deliver on the service side as well as the product and develop what is on site. The Courtyard Bar has become the focal point at Lime Wood, which it was not when we opened, while the former bar has morphed into The Study, much in demand by corporate clients who prefer ‘low meetings‘ – it looks like a lounge and that is deliberate.“


Robin Hutson (left) and David Elton


ballistic and The Pig near Bath has quickly followed suit. “The very name made people question what it was and we wanted customers to discover that we had rooms – but after the food.“


Elton‘s expertise is in the international arena, while Hutson has been more UK-focused, yet together they comprise a formidable blend – different, but equally focused. “If a hotel group becomes too large, it loses something. We want to keep that personal focus, attention to detail and flexibility, plus we‘re enjoying ourselves, so we will focus on growing it to six or so.“


Lime Wood has 33 bedrooms in the main house and new Forest Cottages and Cabin. Positioning it away from Chewton Glen, which Hutson has previously run, has occurred naturally, because the latter is larger and draws a different clientele in some respects – at Lime Wood the focus is on ‘laid back luxury‘ and being a bit different from other five-star country house hotel contenders.


“Both Lime Wood and The Pig have drawn Londoners and customers from the provinces, seeking a


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chilled-out cosmopolitan weekend with London standards,“ said Elton.


Lime Wood‘s close proximity to Southampton makes it popular with corporate entertainers as well as leisure visitors. Combining the talent of Luke Holder and Angela Hartnett for lunch costing £25 is a smart move. “I think the food we serve is certainly more dynamic than you find in Paris and believe London is leading the way when it comes to innovation in food, and that is what we have brought to our entire Group.


“That includes the hotel and Mountain Lodges, which opened last summer. They‘re in a terrific unspoilt location. Interestingly, we are attracting more French customers and offer staff opportunities to experience the international side of the business.“


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Top fragrance houses use Lime Wood for launches, while Sophie Dahl and Jamie Cullum are among celebrity couples who have married there.


“The Group‘s offerings work well close to wealthy, urban conurbations and we appreciate that you receive local support if local people feel they own it. This is what has happened with the incredible response to The Pig at Studland, which draws customers from Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Sandbanks. It‘s as busy on a Monday lunchtime as Saturday.“


Elton believes firmly that the UK needs to make more of its coastline, especially if the weather is not clement, through a wider vision for showing off what it has as a country bounded by the sea, yet arguably with its most beautiful towns and cities inland: “Councils could help change so much if they were a little bit more visionary,“ he mused.


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