Park Holidays UK operates 54 holiday parks in the UK and is one of the largest holiday park operators in the UK, offering caravan and lodge holidays, glamping breaks, touring and camping, and holiday home ownership. It has parks in both country and coastal locations.[1] The company is a member of the British Holiday and Home Parks Association (BH&HPA).[citation needed]
In 2015 and 2022, Park Holidays UK was awarded the "Investors In People - Silver Award" for good staff and recruitment practices. In early 2021, for the fifth year in a row, global ratings and reviews provider Feefo awarded Park Holidays UK the Gold Service Award.
The company was founded in the mid-1980s and was originally called Cinque Ports Leisure.[citation needed] Frenchmans Beach, renamed Rye Harbour, was the first park to be owned, and as the company expanded to include other Kent and East Sussex parks, the name Cinque Ports Leisure was introduced to emphasize the regional base; the name being associated with the port towns that helped defend the UK during the Napoleonic wars.[citation needed]
The company significantly expanded in 2001 with the purchase of ten parks from Haven Holidays, which extended the company's presence west into Dorset and Hampshire and north into Essex and Suffolk. It has continued to expand over the intervening years with significant park acquisitions.[citation needed]
In 2006, the business was acquired by Graphite Capital, and changed its name to Park Holidays UK in 2007, to reflect its expansion away from the Kent and East Sussex area, and the growing holiday and short break aspect of the business.[citation needed]
In 2008, the company acquired two new holiday parks in Dawlish Warren, Devon: Golden Sands Holiday Park and Peppermint Holiday Park. These were later amalgamated in 2013 into a single park location.[citation needed]
In November 2013, Caledonia Investments[2] became the owners which facilitated continued investment and further acquisitions.
In December 2015, Park Holidays UK relocated its head office from Coghurst Hall, Hastings, to Glovers House, Bexhill-on-Sea with approximately 90 staff members, the first development to be completed in the newly built Bexhill Enterprise Park. Keeping with the company's growing ambition Glovers House is a modern, low-energy building with panoramic views over the surrounding Sussex countryside, housing a three-floor, 25,235-square-foot set of offices. In December 2016 it was announced that Caledonia Investments had agreed on terms for a sale to Tiger Bidco Ltd,[3] a company incorporated by Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).[citation needed]
Other park locations have been added to the company over the years. Broadland Sands Holiday Park in Suffolk was completed in December 2014, followed by Two Chimneys Holiday Park in 2015, which was renamed Birchington Vale, to reflect its location in the tranquil North Kent countryside. Tarka Holiday Park near Barnstaple, North Devon was added in April 2016.[citation needed]
In June 2017, Park Holidays UK purchased Carlton Meres[4] in Suffolk, just ten miles inland from the picturesque seaside town of Aldeburgh. In August 2017, the company bought Martello Beach Holiday Park (renamed as Pevensey Bay Holiday Park) near Eastbourne, East Sussex. In May 2018 they purchased another park named Martello Beach Holiday Park (keeping the original name) which is next to their St Osyth Beach resort, and then, in December 2018, the company purchased Dovercourt Holiday Park[5] in Essex. In November 2019 they acquired a park on Mersea Island (Seaview Holiday Park), renaming it West Mersea Holiday Park. Wood Farm in Dorset and Pakefield Holiday Park in Suffolk were added in December 2020, bringing the total number of holiday parks to 33.[citation needed]
In April 2021, Park Holidays UK acquired a group of nine-holiday parks from Bridge Leisure, with parks located in the West Country, Peak District, Yorkshire and Scotland.[citation needed]
In April 2022 an agreement was reached with Sun Communities to acquire Park Holidays UK from ICG (intermediate Capital Group). Sun Communities is a publicly listed organisation and the largest operator of leisure and manufactured home communities in the USA.[citation needed]
Later that April Park Holidays UK acquired Waterside Cornwall Holiday Park renaming it Bodmin Holiday Park to better reflect its location – which brings the total number of holiday parks to 54.[citation needed]
Over the last 5–10 years Park Holidays UK have carried out major refurbishments to its holiday parks,[6] in particular, focusing on infrastructure, clubhouses, new swimming pools, additional facilities, and upgraded holiday accommodation,[7] with a strong focus on developments for luxury lodges.
On 23 June 2022 Sun Communities Inc acquired Park Leisure 2000 Ltd and announced that the latter would trade alongside Park holidays UK as a sister company, and would be defined by a more boutique holiday park feel. The purchase includes the takeover of 11 holiday parks owned by Park Leisure across destinations in England, Scotland and North Wales.[citation needed]
Park Holidays UK operates 4 parks in Cornwall (Hengar Manor, Trevella, Bodmin and Polperro), 7 parks in Devon (Riviera Bay, Landscove, Waterside, Dawlish Sands, Golden Sands, Tarka and Hedley Wood), 2 in Dorset (Sandhills and Wood Farm), 1 in Hampshire (Solent Breezes), 6 in Sussex (Beauport, Coghurst Hall, Chichester Lakeside, Winchelsea Sands, Rye Harbour Holiday Park, Pevensey Bay), 6 in Kent (Marlie, New Beach, Alberta, Seaview, Harts, Birchington Vale), 7 in Essex (Steeple Bay, Oaklands, Seawick, St Osyth Beach, Martello Beach, Dovercourt, West Mersea) and 5 in Suffolk (Felixstowe Beach, Suffolk Sands, Broadland Sands, Carlton Meres and Pakefield), 1 in Derbyshire (Ashbourne Heights), 2 in Yorkshire (Bowland Fell and Sand Le Mere), and 4 in Scotland (Silver Sands and Turnberry). There are two separate park locations operating under Silver Sands - Lossiemouth and Burghead.
Park Leisure operates 3 parks in Cornwall (Oyster Bay, Par Sands and Pentire), 1 park in Herefordshire (Malvern View), 1 park in Lancashire (Ribble Valley), 2 parks in North Wales (Brynteg and Plas Coch), 1 park in Northumberland (Amble Links) and 3 parks in Yorkshire (Chantry, Littondale and Yorkshire Dales).
Related Research Articles
Lowestoft is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. As the most easterly UK settlement, it is 110 miles (177 km) north-east of London, 38 miles (61 km) north-east of Ipswich and 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Norwich, and the main town in its district. The estimated population in the built-up area exceeds 70,000. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As fishing declined, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea in the 1960s took over. While these too have declined, Lowestoft is becoming a regional centre of the renewable energy industry.
Aldeburgh is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Aldeburgh Festival of arts at nearby Snape Maltings, which was founded by Britten in 1948. It also hosts an annual poetry festival and several food festivals and other events.
Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, with a population of 53,200 (2021). The town is situated around 77 miles north-east of Central London, 40 miles east-north-east of Chelmsford, 58 miles north-east of Southend-on-Sea, 16 miles south-east of Colchester and 16 miles south of Harwich.
St Osyth is an English village and civil parish in the Tendring District of north-east Essex, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Clacton-on-Sea and 12 miles (19.3 km) south-east of Colchester. It lies on the B1027, Colchester–Clacton road. The village is named after Osgyth, a 7th-century saint and princess. Locally, the name is sometimes pronounced "Toosey". It is claimed to be the driest recorded place in the United Kingdom.
Point Clear is a village in the civil parish of St Osyth, south-west of the village of St Osyth and on the other side of St Osyth Creek, a branch of the Colne Estuary in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 1674.
Mersea Island is an island in Essex, England, in the Blackwater and Colne estuaries to the south-east of Colchester. Its name comes from the Old English word meresig, meaning "island of the pool" and thus is tautological. The island is split into two main areas, West Mersea and East Mersea, and connected to the mainland by the Strood, a causeway that can flood at high tide.
Dreamland Margate is an amusement park and entertainment centre based on a traditional English seaside funfair located in Margate, Kent, England. The site of the park was first used for amusement rides in 1880, although the Dreamland name was not used until 1920 when the park's Grade II* listed Scenic Railway wooden rollercoaster was opened.
Birchington-on-Sea is a village in the Thanet district in Kent, England, with a population of 9,961.
Camber Sands is a beach in East Sussex, England, in the village of Camber, near Rye. It is the only sand dune system in East Sussex, and is east of the estuary of the River Rother at Rye Bay stretching 3 miles (4.8 km) to just beyond the Kent border, where shingle and pebbles take over again. It is one of three stretches of non-tidally submerged sand east of Poole Bay, which just exceeds the three in total length, on England's south coast, the others being West Wittering and Avon Beach. Two holiday resorts are near Camber Sands owned by Pontins and Parkdean Resorts just off New Lydd Road and Lydd Road respectively in the alighting village of Camber. The former closed on 30 November 2023.
A beach hut is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming attire and for the safe storing of some personal belongings. Some beach huts incorporate simple facilities for preparing food and hot drinks by either bottled gas or occasionally mains electricity.
The National Coastwatch Institution is a voluntary organisation and registered charity, providing a visual watch along the UK's coasts, and is not to be confused with HM Coastguard.
Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. It was acquired by Britannia Hotels in 2011.
Haven Holidays 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.
Eastern National was a bus company operating in south-east England, primarily in Essex, from 1929 to the 1990s.
Shearings is a coach tour operator, part of the Leger Shearings Group, based in the United Kingdom. The tour operator brand specialises in holidays including escorted tours, unescorted tours, short breaks, self-drive holidays and river cruises throughout the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Ireland and Continental Europe.
Warner Leisure 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.
Pakefield Lighthouse is a decommissioned 19th century lighthouse which was built near Pakefield a suburb of Lowestoft in Suffolk. The lighthouse tower has been used for a variety of maritime, civilian and military roles, and is currently used as a Coastwatch lookout post.
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.
This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles.(October 2021)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
£154.8m (2018)
