Assheton Group is a grouping of interests and businesses reflecting the personal and professional interests of Alistair and Joanne Assheton. It assists with providing funding and support to these projects, and aims to provide inspiration for others to get involved in similar projects, or to learn more about the diverse causes and operations we’re involved with. It additionally serves as a source of information for groups already supported, who wish to learn more about our other holdings.
ACTIVE CHANCE
Active Chance provides grants to those working to build better futures for the people of Curacao. It is a small foundation that seeks to effectively give support to people who wish to develop community projects, and who are prepared to work to improve their communities and the prospects for the youth in their neighbourhoods.
ALPASION
Alpasion is an ambitious project to develop – among friends – a high quality, organic vineyard in the high Uco Valley region of Mendoza in Argentina with 60ha of ground now planted with vines There is also a cozy lodge which is for the use of shareholders on the property, but which can also be booked on a hotel basis.
APARTMENTS FOR RENT
Accommodation for older and medically disabled people is an increasing need in the modern world, to allow these groups to continue to live independent lives. We have built a portfolio of apartments and flats across France that cater to this need, and also to business travel – another growing segment.
ARAKELE COLLEGE
Established 8 years ago, Arakele plc provides scholarships or reduced tuition to mainly female students in Addis Ababa for their courses centering around fashion design, most of who have failed 10th and 12th grades and are, as a result, without prospects. They can attend night school alongside the daytime courses to learn academic skills or retake their failed exams.
BFWP PRIMEURS
In 2016 we joined a young, dynamic purchasing group that selects and acquires top quality Bordeaux wines each year in the ‘en primeur’ season. The goal of this is to obtain a limited quantity of First Growth and Cru Classé wines with assured provenance. The hope is that the wine will appreciate in value, and will also improve as it approaches its drinking window – often many years into the future.
BRAZIL FOREST
Brazil Forest is a programme developed by the SLB group who already have over twenty five years of experience in the forest industry. They purchase plots of land in the Paraña area of Brazil and plant eucalyptus trees. These trees are fast growing and a first cut can be made after four years to provide wood to local paper mills. A second cutting is done after eight years – again for paper mills – and the final cut takes place at the end of twelve years to provide timber for construction.
BLUE BAY RESORT
The area of Blue Bay, in Curaçao, began as a plantation with crops such as the bitter oranges used to make the famous traditional blue liqueur. The area has been through many changes until 1990 when the first plan to create the resort was put in place. Now it is a successful hotel and residential resort with an 18- hole golf course, two beautiful reefs to explore and a large beach on which to relax.
EUROPEAN FOREST
Following the success of our investment in Brazil Forest, we moved closer to home and purchased a forest in the Māneciu area north of Bucharest in Romania. This is mature forest which has been left unattended for many years. Again, run by the SLB Group, their management involves intelligently trimming the forest by removing dead or under-growing trees to bring in natural light and allow the existing trees to flourish and grow.
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FRENCH VINEYARDS
Since moving to France, we have enjoyed traveling the length and breadth of the country – and often further afield – to learn about and appreciate the huge variety of wine growing regions in Europe. In recent years we have also had the opportunity to invest in carefully selected vineyard plots that are then leased to top local winemakers, to produce wines of exceptional quality.
IGLOO DE SALLEN
Starting with an abandoned building in the centre of a rural village, we were exploring the possibility of renovating it into affordable housing when we came across an ancient, huge commercial bread oven that had lain unused for many years. In fact, the building had once been the village bakery, and we were able to restore the oven to its former glory and to open the premises as a small restaurant serving fresh, quality wood-fired pizzas from Thursday lunch to Sunday night.
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INGA FOUNDATION
Mike Hands, a farmer from the South West of England, together with an experienced team of local people have established a demonstration farm in the area surrounding the Pico Bonita National Park in Honduras to show the farming families a working example of the Alley Cropping system. They then furnish the families with a number of plants and seeds to start their own Alley Cropping system and assist them for the first two to three years to ensure the farming is properly in place.
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KOME RESTAURANT
We already knew husband and wife chefs, Dave and Su and had worked with them for a number of years before we bought a beautiful building in the up and coming Pietermaai district of Willemstad in Curaçao to enable them to create a restaurant which has proved popular with tourists and locals alike.
CHALET MAIGRET CLOUSEAU
We had never skiied before when, ten years ago, we were invited to join a group of friends on a ski holiday. After a wonderful week in the French resort of Le Chinaillon, Le Grand Bornand, we carried on the tradition. A couple of years later another family joined the group and we found it increasingly difficult to find a well located chalet to house us all. Almost by chance, we were overjoyed to find Chalet Clouseau Maigret for sale. It is a twenty bed chalet right on the piste making it one of the most sought after “ski in ski out” chalets in the resort.
THE TRIANGLE
Downtown Willemstad in Curaçao has been undergoing significant change and development for a number of years now. Once the beating heart of the City, some areas had fallen on hard times and many buildings of historical importance were in danger of becoming unsound.
This project centered on a building that had once been a sailor’s refuge, and more recently the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It was in a very bad state of repair, and we spent three years, and significant amounts of energy and money, restoring the building and developing its immediate environment with the help of Willemstad NV and Studio Acht architects.
