Bourne Leisure
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Leisure / Holidays |
| Founded | 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] |
|
£225.0m (group, 2015)[1] | |
|
£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 |
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 which operates 38 family-orientated caravan holiday parks in England, Scotland and Wales.
- Butlins Skyline Ltd which operates 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 originally founded by Billy Butlin.
- Bourne Holidays Ltd which operates 13 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.
The Guernsey-based fiduciary company, First Ovalap Ltd, is the largest shareholder in Bourne Leisure, representing 97% of the issued share capital and holding 43% of shares with voting rights.[2] Through this the Harris, Cook and Allen families are the joint majority owners.[3]
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.[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.
Following this major expansion of the company some sites were subsequently sold as part of a rationalisaton 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 Europe).
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]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited, Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2015
- ↑ Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited, Annual Return AR01(ef), dated 07/07/2012
- ↑ "VAT refund gives boost to Butlins as owner Bourne Leisure's profits jump by a quarter". This is Money. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ↑ Goodman, Matthew (11 March 2012). "Happy campers behind Butlins - Goodbye hi-de-hi, hello high life". The Sunday Times (London).
- ↑ The Times, October 14, 2000
- ↑ Power, Ben (28 September 2000). "Rank says goodbye to redcoats in £700m sale". London: The Independent, 28 September 2000.
- ↑ Clark, Andrew (28 September 2000). "Rank takes a gamble on Butlins sale". London: The Guardian, 28 September 2000.
- ↑ Reece, Damian (25 March 2001). "Bourne to sell £90m of assets". London: The Telegraph, 25 March 2001.
- ↑ The Sunday Telegraph, December 12, 2004
- ↑ Best Companies. "2014 Best 100 Not for Profit Companies". bestcompanies.co.uk.