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Company type | Private |
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Industry | Leisure / Holidays |
Founded | 1964 | (original predecessor company)
Founders | Peter Harris, David Allen, John Cook |
Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 38 Caravan Parks 13 Leisure Hotels 1 Cottage Resort |
Area served | UK |
Key people | John Dunford Jane Bentall Dermot King |
Products | Holiday Parks Caravan Parks Caravan Sales Leisure Hotels |
Revenue | ![]() |
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Owner | Blackstone Group |
Number of employees | c.14,000 (group, 2015) [1] |
Subsidiaries | Foray 989 Ltd > Bourne Leisure Ltd >> Bourne Holidays Ltd >> Haven Leisure Ltd >> Colaingrove Ltd >>> Bourne Leisure Grp Ltd >>> Evergreen Finance Ltd |
Website | www |
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 and Warner Leisure Hotels.
The main trading companies in the Bourne Leisure group in the UK are:
The Guernsey-based fiduciary company, First Ovalap Ltd, jointly owned by the Harris, Cook and Allen families, were the majority shareholders until the majority of the share were bought by the private equity company Blackstone. [2] [3]
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. [4] 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. [5] [6] [7] 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, [8] 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. [9] 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. [10]
In early 2021, Bourne Leisure was purchased by Blackstone. [11] Starwood provided a loan of £1.8 billion to facilitate the purchase, which was an estimated £3 billion. [12]
In September 2022, it was announced that Butlins had been sold by The Blackstone Group as part of a £300 million deal, to one of the original founding families of Bourne Leisure and was sold to the Harris Family Trust. The deal however does not include Butlins property assets which were sold earlier in the year to the UK’s biggest private pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme for and estimated £300 million. [13]
EMI Group Limited was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its acquisition by Universal Music in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate in the music industry, and was one of the "Big Four" record companies. Its labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records, which are now referenced under Universal Music due to their acquisition with the exception of Parlophone, as it is now owned by Warner Music.
Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, incorporated as Butlins Skyline Limited. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families.
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate across the globe. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, secondaries, growth equity, and insurance solutions. As of May 2024, Blackstone has more than US$1 trillion in total assets under management, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.
A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation, primarily in the United Kingdom, that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term has fallen out of favour with terms such as holiday park, resort, holiday village and holiday centre replacing it.
The Rank Group plc is a gambling company based in the United Kingdom. Rank was involved in the cinema and motion picture industry until 2006, and continues to use the Gongman logo originally used by the Rank Organisation's film distribution subsidiary General Film Distributors. Its brands now include Mecca Bingo, and Grosvenor Casinos, the UK's largest casino operator.
Gala Bingo is an online bingo and casino offering under the ownership of Entain.
Peter Harris is a British businessman. He is best known for founding Bourne Leisure in 1964 and the owner of Butlins from September 2022.
Haven is a company operating a chain of holiday parks in the United Kingdom. It operates self catering static caravan holiday parks with many also including touring and camping facilities. The company operates 38 sites in the UK in predominantly coastal locations.
Park Resorts was a holiday park operator with 48 holiday parks located across the United Kingdom.
Extended Stay America, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the operator of an economy apartment hotel chain in the United States and Canada. Prior to June 2021, when the company was acquired by Blackstone Real Estate and the Starwood Capital Group, it was publicly traded as a "paired share" with ESH Hospitality, Inc., a real estate investment trust and the owner of the hotels. As of 2022, there are 650+ Extended Stay America branded hotels.
Merlin Entertainments Limited is a British entertainment company based at Poole in Dorset, England, which operates a number of theme parks and other tourist attractions. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until November 2019, when it was acquired by a consortium that includes Kirkbi A/S.
Duporth was situated on Porthpean Road, just outside St Austell in south Cornwall, England, UK. For over 50 years, it was a holiday resort, until its closure in 2006. The site has now been sold to private developers and now contains new houses in the traditional Cornish cottage style.
Butlin's Ayr was a holiday camp located near Ayr in South Ayrshire, Scotland. When originally opened in 1946, it was named Butlin's Ayr, but in 1987 was renamed Wonderwest World. It closed in 1998 and re-opened in 1999 under the management of Haven Holidays who renamed it Craig Tara.
Craig Tara is a holiday camp located near Ayr in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is run by Haven Holidays, who took over and renamed the former Butlin's Ayr camp in 1999.
Starwood Capital Group is an investment firm headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida. It is managed by Barry Sternlicht. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and Robert Faith in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partners.
Butlin's Pwllheli was a holiday camp located near Pwllheli in Wales. The site is now used by Haven Holidays for a caravan park and has been renamed Hafan y Môr. When originally opened in 1947, it was named Butlins Pwllheli, but in 1990 was renamed Starcoast World.
Hafan y Môr is a holiday camp located near Pwllheli in Wales. It is currently run by Haven Holidays.
Warner Hotels is a hospitality company owning 14 country and coastal properties around the UK in North Wales, Somerset, Herefordshire, Berkshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Isle of Wight, Suffolk, Hampshire and Warwickshire. Founded in 1932 as Warner Holiday Camps, later known as Warner Holidays and has been adult only since 1994. In the 1990s Warner's started developing country house hotels and changing their existing 'camps' into coastal resorts and hotels.
Parkdean Resorts is a holiday park operator in the United Kingdom. It was formed in November 2015 through the merger of Parkdean Holidays and Park Resorts. As of 2022 it operates 66 holiday parks across England, Scotland, and Wales, and is the largest holiday park operator in the UK. Parkdean invested £140 million into its parks in the UK in 2021 and 2022.
Siblu owns and operates 23 large family holiday parks in France and the Netherlands. Siblu's holiday parks are located across Normandy, the Brittany coastline, the west of France, the Loire Valley, the Mediterranean coast, Zeeland and the Wadden Sea. The parks have Dutch, French and English speaking staff and the facilities are aimed at families with a mix of accommodation such as mobile homes and chalets.
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