IN the aftermath of the EU referendum in June 2016, Bill Costley expressed his dismay at the UK electorate’s vote in favour of Brexit in an interview with this newspaper.

More than two years on, the hotelier who owns some of Scotland’s best-loved venues, including Ayrshire’s Lochgreen and Brig o’Doon country house hotels, still can’t understand the rationale.

It is perhaps second nature for a chef who learned his skills at cooking school in Versailles, and who has relished the opportunity his industry has given him to travel, to look to the continent as a place to expand the mind. But his view is informed by pragmatism too.

As the owner of a business heavily dependent on its ability to recruit staff from within the EU, be it senior managers or waiting staff, impeding the free flow of workers from countries within the bloc to the UK will cause a severe headache.

In actual fact, the prospect of Brexit is already having an effect, with one recent survey revealing the number of people coming to work in the Scottish tourism and hospitality sector from the EU has already dropped by 47 per cent.

“I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to [leave the EU],” Mr Costley said.

“I don’t get it at all. I’d prefer a federal Europe to be honest. I think we should all be working together.”

He added: “I’m the same with [Scottish] independence. I just don’t get it.”

Costley & Costley, which Mr Costley formed with wife Cath in 1988, is already feeling the effects of Brexit. He said it is already more difficult to find senior managers for the business, despite the promise of working at such prestigious destinations.

“There’s no staff,” Mr Costley said. “47 per cent down [in] staff? It’s unbelievable. It’s unsustainable.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, hotels and restaurants are already changing their business models in response to this new reality.

For one, Mr Costley said is now increasingly common for restaurant owners to effectively buy in meals ready-made because it is harder to attract chefs and, crucially, less expensive than preparing food on the premises.

Ironically, this has come as people appear to be increasingly interested in cooking at home and more particular about the ingredients they use, inspired by the welter of TV programmes dedicated to the subject.

“You find most restaurants and hotels buy everything in,” Mr Costley said.

“I could tell you every hotel in Glasgow that buys it in completely, 100%. It may be right.

“There are a lot of food manufacturers now. If you are writing a menu X, Y and Z, and you can buy 200 portions of X, Y and Z, it makes sense, because there are no cooks now. You can’t get staff to work the kitchen.”

He added: “There is nothing you can’t buy now, nothing.”

However, Mr Costley said it doesn’t necessarily follow that the food served up in such premises is poor. In fact, he praises the quality of food provided by specialists such as Braehead Foods. But does the apparent decline of cooking in restaurant kitchens dispirit him as a chef?

“It’s probably need must, to be honest,” he said. “We are probably one of the few companies that do our own.”

That operators across the industry are gravely concerned about the overheads they face was highlighted after The Herald reported on the firm’s latest accounts last month.

The accounts showed that Costley & Costley had slipped into the red amid rising costs, while emphasising that the company had continued to invest heavily in developing its estate.

Mr Costley commented to The Herald at the time: “Going back 20 years, it was much, much easier to make a business work than it is currently.

“[For] a lot of young ones going out to the theatre, the experience of the food is less important now. People are eating out more, but I think the décor and the ambience is more important than what is on the plate. People want that informality now.”

No sooner had the article been published than Mr Costley said he was inundated with calls from colleagues across industry sharing similar concerns. It underlined the difficult situation many in the Scottish tourism and hospitality is currently facing.

“Everything is extortionate now, absolutely extortionate,” Mr Costley said.

“I think there is a ‘Waterloo’ pending in the industry. I don’t mean to sound down about it, because I am not that way at all. We’ve decided to run our business one way.

“We’ve got our own patisserie unit, our own chocolatier, our own ice-cream; each kitchen has their own production. But I might be wrong. Does it make any difference to your night out?”

Meanwhile, Mr Costley said the industry continues to face difficulties tempting young people to consider it as a career choice.

In some cases, he has found, the task is made harder because parents do not see hospitality as the right route for their children. He acknowledges that working in a kitchen is still not for the faint-hearted, such can be the intensity of the demands.

Times have changed from his younger days, when working 70 to 80 hours a week was the norm, however it remains a tough environment.

That said, he remains effusive about the opportunities the industry has to offer, even though a lack of bank support means it is harder for up and coming operators to get the chance to set up their own premises.

“It is one of the most exciting industries, I think anyway, for a young person to go into,” he said. “There is so much you can do, [you can] travel the world, experience life.

“It’s a great industry, and if you are good at it, there are opportunities to get on.”

Despite the many challenges facing the industry, Mr Costley remains as keen as ever to continue evolving and improving his own business.

The Costley & Costley portfolio spans seven country house hotels and inns in its native Ayrshire, and the chef is ever alert to acquisition opportunities, revealing that he came close to doing a deal around three months ago.

Investment is also now being made in areas such the company’s IT systems, with Mr Costley conceding that until now he has been a “dinosaur” when it comes to using digital technology to market the business.

“My kind of philosophy before was that, if your food is good, your place is nice and you have a smile on your face, people will come in the door,” Mr Costley said.

“It is not necessarily the way now, because there are an awful lot of good operators.

“Our area itself I think is one of the best areas to eat out in Scotland. And there’s a lot of good banqueting places as well. It used to be there was just a few.

“Unless you have got that unique selling point you need to be absolutely brilliant. Being good is not good enough now.”

Looking ahead, he said he would like to see his son Andrew, already a key part of the team as director and executive chef, take an even greater leadership role.

“I’d quite like to offload a few [venues],” he added. “I’d like to develop Lochgreen an awful lot more. We have got plans for a new swimming pool and a new banqueting facility, and we are going to make the restaurant slightly more contemporary.

“We put in a new spa and it just won an award there. We think it’s really good. It fits in well.”

He added: “I’d like to get down to three or four [venues] eventually, but it’s not imminent. I would like to have some really terrific places to be honest with you.

“I’ve been lucky in the respect I have had a very good run in my career. We’ve made quite a few good buys I think, good types of properties.

“We have got the equity value there, but I would like to have really fine businesses, really terrific.”

Six Questions

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

I’ve always loved France and first went in my twenties to visit the food markets, desperate to see the country which inspired cooking. I was at Turnberry at the time and all the menus were in French, so France was integral to cooking. I was lucky enough to attend Cook School in Versailles. I’ve loved the country ever since.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job?Why did it appeal?

I always wanted to be an artist and at school I won the prize for art every year - apart from primary two when a boy in the class won for drawing a cowboy. I was gutted! I loved drawing and technical work, generally being creative.

What was your biggest break in business?

Probably when I went to work at Chapeltoun House Hotel in Stewarton. At that time I had a reputation for creating artistic sculptures, be it using sugar, chocolate or ice. Chapeltoun gave me the opportunity to go back on the stove and opened my eyes to how to run a successful business.

What was your worst moment in business?

I’ve had a very lucky career. There have been times when I’ve had my heart set on buying a property and it’s fallen through, so I suppose missed opportunities have been my low points.

Who do you most admire and why?

My lecturer at college, Albert Goldbus, gave me the encouragement that I could be successful. In a class of 40 at the age of 16 he singled me out and told me that I was going to make it. He was a tough taskmaster but he taught me all the fundamentals.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to? What was the last film you saw?

Like many in business managing my time can be challenging so any books I read are reference books about cooking or business. Most of my spare time is taken up painting which remains a passion.