Bourne Leisure

Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Leisure / Holidays
Founded	1964 (1964) (original predecessor company)
Founders	Peter Harris, David Allen, John Cook
Headquarters	Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire , UK
Number of locations	38 Caravan Parks 3 Holiday Resorts 13 Leisure Hotels
Area served	UK
Key people	John Dunford Jane Bentall Dermot King
Products	Holiday Parks Caravan Parks Caravan Sales Leisure Hotels
Revenue	£951.4m (group, 2015)[1]
Operating income	£225.0m (group, 2015)[1]
Net income	£151.7m (group, 2015)[1]
Owner	First Ovalap Limited (97%)
Number of employees	c.14,000 (group, 2015)[1]
Subsidiaries	Foray 989 Ltd > Bourne Leisure Ltd >> Bourne Holidays Ltd >> Butlins Skyline Ltd >> Haven Leisure Ltd >> Colaingrove Ltd >>> Bourne Leisure Grp Ltd >>> Evergreen Finance Ltd
Website	www.bourneleisuresales.co.uk, www.haven.com

Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited is a British private company which owns a number of subsidiary undertakings operating in the leisure and holiday sectors in the United Kingdom including Haven Holidays, Butlins and Warner Leisure Hotels.

Company structure[]

The main trading companies in the Bourne Leisure group in the UK are:

• Haven Leisure Ltd who operate 37 family-orientated caravan holiday parks in England, Scotland and Wales.
• Butlins Skyline Ltd who operate the three Butlin's holiday resorts at the English coastal towns, Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness. These are the last three resorts operating under the Butlin's name from the ten founded by Billy Butlin.
• Bourne Holidays Ltd who operate 14 hotels across the UK under the Warner Leisure Hotels name, and which are exclusively for adults. Many of the Warner Leisure Hotels properties are country house hotels, including Alvaston Hall, Bodelwyddan Castle, Cricket St Thomas, Holme Lacey House, Littlecote House, Nidd Hall, and Thoresby Hall.

Part of Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel, a Warners Leisure Hotel near Rhyl in north Wales

The Guernsey-based fiduciary company, First Ovalap Ltd, jointly owned by the Harris, Cook and Allen families,^{[citation needed]} is the largest shareholder in Bourne Leisure, representing 97% of the issued share capital and holding 43% of shares with voting rights.^[2]

History[]

In 1964 accountant Peter Harris, with business partner David Allen, purchased Alberta caravan park in Whitstable, Kent. A few years after this acquisition John Cook joined with Harris and Allen, and in 1972 the three entrepreneurs floated the company, Leisure Caravan Parks, on the London stock exchange.^[3] The company was subsequently acquired by Rank in 1975 for £20m. Meanwhile, Harris, Cook and Allen started over again with a new set of parks which they then expanded in October 2000 by buying The Rank Group’s holiday business. This purchase included the Haven caravan sites, three Butlins holiday camps, Oasis Holiday Village and Warner Leisure Hotels. The deal cost £700m and was part financed by Legal & General Ventures and Candover.^[4][5][6] The business was able to buy out these two private equity firms a few years later.^{[citation needed]}

Following this major expansion of the company some sites were subsequently sold as part of a rationalization of the business. In March 2001 seven parks were sold to Premier Dawn for £15m,^[7] and soon afterwards Cinque Ports bought nine parks for £28.7m. In May 2001 twelve Haven sites were sold to Park Resorts Ltd, in a management buy-out in partnership with CBPE for £48m. In September 2001, Center Parcs acquired the Oasis Holiday Village, at Whinfell Forest, Cumbria.

In February 2004 LGV and Candover sold their 28% stake back to management in a deal that valued the firm at more than £1 billion. And in October 2004 Bourne sold a package of five sites to Parkdean Holidays for £42m.^[8] In November 2004 the company sold its European operation Haven Europe for £250m (now named Siblu).

In 2015, Bourne Leisure came fourth in the 100 Best Companies to Work For, a list generated in the UK by The Sunday Times newspaper.^[9]

In early 2021, Bourne Leisure was purchased by Blackstone.^[10] Starwood provided a loan of £1.8 billion to facilitate the purchase.^[11]

References[]

External links[]

• Bourne Leisure
• Haven Holidays
• Butlins
• Warner Leisure Hotels