Property and hospitality have long formed a large part of Britain’s private business economy, with firms ranging from small property companies to larger operators managing accommodation, food and leisure assets. Office for National Statistics data recorded about 118,000 VAT and PAYE businesses in the property sector in 2024, alongside about 174,000 in accommodation and food services. The same year saw 13,385 new businesses in property and 30,360 in accommodation and food services. Against this wider setting, Declan Martin Lohan developed a business career that combined property ownership, hospitality interests and company management before his later involvement in motorsport.
Lohan became self-employed in 1989, and his early business activity centred on property. His interests covered residential, commercial and leisure assets, with pubs and hotels forming part of the hospitality side of his work. By 1997, he had become managing director of the Lohan Group, a position he has been associated with while developing his property interests. Public company records provide a separate view of this activity. They show Lohan holding directorships or significant-control positions in several companies connected with property, hospitality and other business interests.
One of the earlier appointments was with Heritage Fine Dining Limited, where Lohan became a director in May 2002. Companies House records also show his involvement with Jadelink UK Limited, a company whose recorded activity includes the buying and selling of its own real estate. Lohan’s association with Jadelink dates from 2003. Both companies have continued to appear in corporate records associated with him. However, their structures and filings have changed over time. Heritage Fine Dining’s filings, for example, record a change to Lohan’s director particulars in 2009, while Jadelink’s records contain several subsequent changes to director information. These filings provide formal evidence of his long-running involvement in privately held companies.
New Buckenham Property Ltd was incorporated in November 2015 and lists Lohan among its directors alongside Roche and Devlin, the two other founders of Virtuosi Racing. Yaxham Road Property Management Company Limited was incorporated in August 2017, with Companies House records later recording Lohan as a person with significant control. Lohan is also listed as a person with significant control at Lohan Property Limited, incorporated in March 2019. Its 2024 accounts showed total assets of about £1.86 million and net assets of about £514,000. Those figures relate to the company, rather than representing Lohan’s personal wealth.
Hospitality has remained another part of the corporate record. Lohan opened An Poitin Still, described as the first traditional-looking Irish pub in Hendon, London, during this period. The pub became very successful, and he sold it in 1998. Southwold Inns Limited and Beechwood Taverns Ltd appear among Lohan’s earlier directorships. A later example is Foundry Inns Limited, incorporated in July 2018. Companies House-linked records identify Lohan as its director and person with significant control. Accounts for the year ending July 2024 reported 28 employees, total assets of about £243,000 and liabilities of about £266,000. The figures illustrate the scale of one company connected with his hospitality interests, while also showing why individual company accounts should not be treated as a measure of an owner’s wider business position.
Lohan’s property interests also intersected with his work as a business adviser. Since February 2015, he has been described as a personal adviser to Cerberus European Capital, with work relating to pubs and property. His LinkedIn profile currently identifies him with Cerberus European Capital and places him in the Greater Norwich area. Independent motorsport reporting later described him as an Irish property developer living in Norfolk, providing another link between his established business career and the activities that followed. The corporate record also places several of his companies at Virtuosi House in Old Buckenham, Norfolk. This address became closely associated with his later motorsport interests.
That commercial background became relevant when Lohan entered motorsport. Motor Sport Magazine reported that Roche approached him in 2009, when Lohan had experience in property development and was already interested in racing. In 2012, Lohan, Roche and Devlin established Virtuosi Racing, initially competing in Auto GP. The FIA British F4 account describes Lohan as providing help on the business side while Roche and Devlin brought racing and engineering experience. Motor Sport Magazine also reported that Lohan focused on costs, equipment and financial planning during the team’s early years. His business career therefore preceded his motorsport ownership and provided a separate professional foundation for that later activity. The property and hospitality record remains central to understanding Declan Martin Lohan’s emergence as an entrepreneur.
