In the last 40 years, the McKeever family have witnessed their business grow exponentially – now boasting an impressive repertoire of seven properties including their most recent purchase of Armagh City Hotel.
Their McKeever Hotel Group’s acquisition of Armagh’s famous City hotel – announced in April – was welcomed news with much excitement brewing locally for their potential future investment in the venue.
With a few months now under their belt, Armagh I sat down with Managing Director, Eddie McKeever, to find out more about the group’s plans for their newest venue.
Before getting into the nitty gritty details, Eddie – who has grown up in the family business – was keen to reflect on how the McKeever Hotel Group came to be.
And while from the outside looking in, their world may seem glaringly corporate, his family’s story is incredibly identifiable.
It all started some four decades ago when Eddie’s father, Eugene – who was a Head Chef by trade – bought a small restaurant in Randalstown, called Granagh House.
The first of the McKeevers’ businesses also became a home to Eugene, his wife Catherine, Eddie, sister Bridgene – who is also McKeever Hotel Group’s Director of Sales, Marketing & Communications and Company Secretary – and their three siblings.
“We lived above it,” he added. “Dad opened and closed the door every day and mum worked full time in the restaurant and full time at her job [as a teacher] and there were two of us kids at that time.
“Then came family and five of us kids eventually and they just built that business.”
Not before long, Eugene was offered the opportunity to purchase Corr’s Corner – a restaurant where he previously worked as Head Chef – by John Corr, its former owner. And this property provided their first opportunity to expand into accommodation.
Said Eddie: “It was just like a road house at the time but very, very popular and three times the size of Granagh House that dad had. That was in 1993 and we built on bedrooms in 1997.”
Their next move was a bold one. The McKeevers purchased a substantial site in Antrim and constructed their first ever purpose-built hotel, Dunsilly Hotel.
Within a relatively short period of time the group additionally acquired the Adair Arms in Ballymena, Dillons Hotel in Letterkenny and the Dunadry Hotel from the Mooney Group, who they once again dealt with for the purchase of Armagh City Hotel.
Alongside their purchase of Armagh City Hotel in 2025, the McKeevers also acquired The Lodge Hotel in Coleraine.
Following the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, Eddie explains that while it was “terrible for the entire industry” the break in normal business gave the family a rare opportunity to take stock of their current business and strategy moving forward.
The group brought in a Non-Executive Director who was just beginning to speak about strategy and together they put plans in place that saw the company emerge from the pandemic “stronger than when they went into it”.
With a wealth of industry experience between them, the family now have impressive plans in the pipeline for their Orchard County property – and an equally impressive circa £2 million budget to make their vision a reality.
And, as Eddie explains, there were many reasons that Armagh City Hotel appealed to the group from the offset.
He said: “When we looked at our strategy starting off, we were looking at getting a hotel that would be either four star or have four star potential, with over 100 bedrooms, ideally city centre and a different location than County Antrim – because our hotels are currently quite Antrim-centric.
“When Armagh City came up, first of all it has a very good reputation, it’s really loved locally. A lot of bigger hotels would be bedroom-focussed that really only concentrate on travelling and our style of hotel has always been about the local community and this fit the bill perfectly – and the fact it was in a city was great.
“Mum and Dad have always had a philosophy of, if you can walk into a hotel and can’t see something that you feel you can improve – don’t buy it. We came in here and felt it was a really good hotel but knew we could add to it and put our own stamp on it.
“We don’t have to change very much. It’s just about highlighting what is already done well, modernising a few areas and improving serving standards but there is nothing wrong at the core of the hotel at all.”
To help aid a smooth transition – before launching into their plans for refurbishment – the team have been busily implementing new procedures behind the scenes.
Eddie explains: “We have a very set group of systems that we use as a group. Straight away, we were able to bring in our time management system, HR system and till system.
“We couldn’t really do anything on the operation until we had brought in the till system, for example, because along with that comes iPads, table settings and things like that.”
Now that they have these systems in place, Eddie says the immediate focus is now to bring the hotel to four star standard, which they hope to have achieved by September.
With the move to four star status, comes several exciting new measures which Eddie details: “It already feels like a four star to us but in looking at the report we received, it fell down on the service element.
“There was nothing wrong, it was just table service for example. The lunch here, which is very popular, is buffet style but you can’t really amalgamate the two of those very well, so we would be looking to introduce more table service and more waiter interaction.
“For the deli, the same thing would apply. People can still come up to the counter and order but the option to be served at the table would be there.
“It might also entail a few extra questions on the front desk, enhanced meet and greet and maybe some elements of breakfast.”
The company will also be introducing its highly popular and completely unique custom coffee blend made from 100% arabica beans – which was developed in 2016 for the Year of Food and Drink with the help of a coffee supplier based in Millisle.
Once the four star status is obtained the company will then be looking at ways to roll out that actual capital expenditure, and to do that, they are relying heavily on customer input.
Armagh I recently partnered with the hotel to roll out a customer survey to help the McKeever Hotel Group receive feedback ahead of improvements. Information gathered through this survey will now help to form the basis of their refurbishment strategy moving forward.
“We can see areas that need improvement or the staff may have told us of what they would like to see but that’s why we are reaching out to customers,” said Eddie. “It will give us an idea what to prioritise. It’s very customer-led in the large capital expenditure part of it.”
Eddie expects the refurbishment to start with a modernisation of the hotel’s meeting rooms and the development of the hotel’s entrance which would see the existing heavy glass doors replaced with electric sliding doors and an extended lobby space.
There are also plans to develop upon the hotel’s exceptional conference and banqueting space , which Eddie says could be one of the largest spaces of its kind on the island of Ireland.
“We really want to get the hotel to the stage where it become an all-Ireland events and conferencing destination,” he added. “The space here is massive and there is literally a handful of that size of rooms in Ireland so if conferences are coming looking for that size of a space we want to be in that conversation.
“It’s about building a really good four star hotel that competes for its place on the island for its conferencing and events while still serving the community with a slightly higher level of service to it.”
Through conversation with Head Chef John White, the company are also hoping to pursue A Rosette status for their restaurant – something they have already successfully achieved with Dunadry Hotel.
All in all, Eddie is hopeful that within the next three years they will have achieved the bulk of their ambition for the hotel.
And, while they hope their improvements will be noticeable to the public, he reassuringly states that the company hope to retain the “identity” of the hotel – as they have done with all of their hotels thus far.
He added: “The customers feel like a part of it and feel some sense of ownership of the hotel, almost. They have had birthday parties here, christenings here and anniversaries.
“We are really aware that everyone else knows more about this hotel than us and we are really excited to have that partnership and bring something to the community that will be of benefit to everyone, near or far.”
