Dartington Trust 'in a position to move forward'

Dartington Trust announced it was making good progress towards achieving financial stability

Dartington Trust has announced it has made good progress towards achieving financial stability.

In an open letter, chair Lord Triesman and CEO Robert Fedder acknowledged "earlier financial troubles" and said the trust was now in a position to move forward.

The letter said staff have worked extremely hard "just to get us straight for the short term".

Previously, trust students were left shocked as courses were postponed due to "pressing issue" of the "preservation and sustainability of Dartington".

'Developing new concepts'

The letter said: "Our early success has been in significantly reducing losses and mapping the route to breakeven, so that we are able to reinvest from surpluses we have generated ourselves, not solely from external sources.

"We are blessed with many tools at our disposal to restore and enhance the reputation of the Dartington Estate as a destination for visitors to pursue a huge range of interests: heritage, natural beauty, hospitality, entertainment, culture, retail, courses, sustainability, business tenancies - it's all here now and there'll be more of everything.

"The team is busy developing new concepts and initiatives, in many cases partnering with best-in-class specialist operators to accelerate ideas and host or curate compelling new offerings."

The letter also shut down claims suggesting that a former board member might "buy Dartington Estate for £1" in the event that they fell into administration.

"There is little to learn from looking back to the dark days of last year, when one former trustee suggested they might buy Dartington Estate for £1 in the event that we fell into administration, hindsight combined with our greater confidence now may still be instructive: now we’ve eliminated the threat of going bust and gained momentum in getting the place into better shape.

"There's no way we'll sell for £1 to a former trustee or anyone else."