The Daily Mail’s circulation may be heading south, but profits at Paul Dacre’s Canaird River Company are going up sharply. Updated figures show it returned a £487,000 profit last year, taking lifetime earnings to £2.4m.
The firm runs a hydroelectric scheme on Dacre’s huge 17,000-acre country estate in Scotland. It was set up in 2013 and has now made around £500,000 a year since 2017. The Dacre family own 40% of the venture via the Langwell Estate Family Partnership – with Paul and his son Alexander also members of the board of directors. Its accumulated profits are looking good, despite a tax-effective £738,000 write-down on the value of its green assets.
If Dacre chooses to holiday in Scotland this summer – as opposed to his retreats in the British Virgin Islands and the south of France – one hopes he might take the trouble to come and see Andrew Woodall playing him in my play Bloody Difficult Women during the Edinburgh Festival.
