Liverpool city region hospitality and hotel operator Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group sees revenues soar 21% to £20.7m but profits fall sharply amid higher costs and a stuttering economy. Tony McDonough reports
Hospitality and hotel operator Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group is reporting rising revenues and falling profits in what is a tough environment for the bars and leisure sector.
Registered in Southport but with its main operational base in Liverpool, Mikhail operates 13 bars and hotels across Liverpool city region with a particular focus on Southport town centre where it has six venues.
Its latest accounts for the 12 months to December 31, 2024, posted on Companies House, reveal a rise in revenue of more than 21% to £20.7m. However, pre-tax profits fell from just over £806,000 in 2023 to £425,786.
Similar to all hospitality businesses, Mikhail is having to battle depressed consumer spending along with rising input costs. The National Living Wage has risen for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025.
Majority owned by founder Andrew Mikhail and his wife Vicky Mikhail, the group’s Liverpool portfolio includes The Brewery Tap in Cains Brewery Village and one of the city centre’s best known traditional pubs, Doctor Duncan’s close to St George’s Hall.
It is in Southport where it is most heavily invested. In an interview with LBN in 2023 Andrew Mikhail said it was happy memories of coming to the town as a child that inspired him to make his first investment in the town.
A decade ago he paid £1.1m for the Bold Hotel and invested a further £1.6m to transform the historical venue’s fortunes. But he didn’t stop there. Dismayed by the decay he saw around Andrew started buying up other properties.
“I bought the Bold Hotel around 10 years ago. When I bought that it was partly because it was somewhere I used to go with my mum and dad when I was a kid,” he said.
“At that time the whole other side of Lord Street in that section was boarded up. There now is Punch Tarmeys on the corner, the Lord Street Hotel and The Grand.
“Basically I just kept on chipping away. I started to buy these properties one by one. But I can’t say there was any overall plan or strategy to it. It was just that we were doing well so I just kept going.”
To date Andrew has invested more than £10m into Southport with his flagship project, The Grand, celebrating the third anniversary of its launch in July this year.
This meticulous project saw the transformation of the former Grand Casino, a once grand art deco landmark building that had sat empty, neglected and badly vandalised over many years. Many of the original features were restored.
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The first Grade II Listed building opened its doors in the summer of 2022, revealing the first phase of the works – the ground floor – which was carried out thanks to £3m investment by the Mikhail Group.
Andrew told Stand Up For Southport this year: “Bringing fabulous buildings back to life is such a rewarding feeling, it’s what I love to do, and a building as stunning as The Grand deserves to be enjoyed by the people of Southport and beyond.”