Haven and British Holidays

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Haven and British Holidays
Type Private
Founded 2004 as Haven and British Holidays
Headquarters Flag of the United Kingdom Hemel Hempstead, England, UK
Industry Holiday
Parent Bourne Leisure
Website Home

Haven Holidays is a company that runs many well-known holiday parks around United Kingdom under the Haven and British Holidays brands, previously two separate companies until Bourne Leisure (previously owner of British Holidays) acquired Haven via the The Rank Group for £700 million in 2000[1]. It now almost entirely trades as Haven.

Haven and British Holidays operates 37 holiday parks under their own name, but previously ran a further 30+ smaller parks, which have either been sold to other providers such Park Holidays UK, Park Resorts and Parkdean Holidays.

Although the Haven name is now far more dominant, Bourne Leisure undertook the task of making the skills of the Haven chain consistent with that of its own British Holidays. Haven and British Holidays makes Bourne Leisure the largest caravan park operator in the UK[2].

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Purchase of Haven

In October 2000, Bourne Leisure purchased all of The Rank Group's UK tourism interests for £700 million, which would bring up their total number of parks from both Haven and British Holidays to 78, with 55 branded as Haven and 23 marketed as British Holidays.

British Holidays logo -2007
British Holidays logo -2007

Bourne decided to retain only the larger operating units which accounted for approximately 85% of their customer flow. By focusing on the larger parks, a better return could be sought from investment and meant that it was possible to significantly upgrade the Haven parks in a shorter period of time to the standard of the British Holidays chain[3].

Park Resortswas formed and purchased 12 of the parks backed by Close Brothers. 9 of the parks were bought by Cinque Ports Leisure, which has since become Park Holidays UK.Other smaller parks were sold to independent operators. British Holidays on the other hand sold their Prestatyn holiday park, Lido Beach, and the smaller New Quay park, Cai Bach. At the end of 2004 a further 3 Haven parks and 2 British Holiday parks were sold to the publicly listed Parkdean Holidays Wemyss Bay, Pendine Sands, Cherry Tree, Warmwell and Torquay. These were relatively small parks and did not fit as well into the brand.

[edit] Re-branding

Haven and British Holidays dual-branded logo
Haven and British Holidays dual-branded logo

Branding of the two companies was mixed together more with both logos appearing on marketing and a single call centre being adopted. A single uniform for staff was brought in in 2004. The slogan "where great family holidays are made" (this was Haven's slogan which was adopted by British Holidays from 2002) was dropped and replaced with "the great family get together" to reinforce the fact that both brands were now really one. By 2006, due to the improved understanding by customers that Haven and British Holidays were now the same company and that the parks were now of a similar standard, Bourne published a combined brochure for both British Holidays and Haven. In 2006, advertisements were solely branded as "Haven", and the former British-holidays.co.uk domain was re-directed to havenholidays.com, despite the British Holidays logo still being evident. By 2007 the slogan was again replaced with "Haven Love Families" highlighting the importance of the Haven brand name. From 2007, caravan sales marketing was rebranded as Haven Holiday Homes, though the former "Owners Exclusive" brand introduced by British Holidays in 2001 still remains prominent on the parks themselves. The favouritism of the Haven name is due to it having a greater brand identity.

A variety of branding exists on the parks themselves. Former British Holidays resorts place greater significance on the individual park logo and name, with a mixture of British Holidays and Haven signage as a sub-brand only. Former Haven previously placed greater emphasis on the Haven brand, sites have also received their own park-specific logos since the acquisition.

Far Grange Park & Golf Club was purchased in 2007 (the first time a park was purchased by Bourne Leisure since the Rank Group in 2000) in Skipsea on the Yorkshire Coast. The park appeared for the first time in the 2008 holiday brochure, issued in November 2007, and has been simply re-named "Far Grange"[4]

In November 2007, the British Holidays name was eventually put to rest within all publicity material, however it still appears to be used for legalities only [5]. The British Holidays' sun logo continues to be used within various aspects of park branding, including within the entertainment brand Funworks logo. Additionally, the URL haven.com has replaced havenholidays.com in all written publication.

[edit] Activities & Facilities

Funworks, Haven's brand for its entertainment and amusement complexes
Funworks, Haven's brand for its entertainment and amusement complexes

Activities across all Haven and British Holidays parks are universally branded using names introduced by British Holidays in 1998, including "Funworks" (main entertainment complex), "Showbar" (family entertainment centre), "Foodworks" (fast food outlets; many now replaced by Burger King), "Ropeworks" (high rope activity centre), "SplashZone" (swimming pools), "SportsZone (sports activities) and "FunZone" (outdoor family activity / playground areas). In addition, all parks have a general store (usually branded by Everydays, Essentials or not at all), reception and a Haven Holiday Homes focusing on caravan sales, often branded as "Owners Exclusive" within the parks themselves.

The ShowBar entertainers are universally named "FunStars", replacing the "Haven Mates" brand after the acquisition.

The children's mascot in Haven was previously Rory the Tiger and in British Holidays was Bradley Bear. However, since the bringing together of the two companies, both mascots are seen in all parks, alongside other children's characters from both former companies such as Greedy the Gorilla and Anxious the Elephant.

In 2008, Haven are launching a new kids programme, "Kids Alive" to help encourage children to exercise and enjoy active lifestyles, which is part of the company's attempt to take on board the advice of the British Health Council in tackling childhood obesity.

[edit] Holiday Parks

In the UK, Haven & British Holidays operate thirty-six parks

[edit] Haven-owned parks

[edit] British Holidays-owned parks

[edit] New Parks to the Haven and British Holiday parks Family

  • Far Grange Park & Golf Club (Skipsea)

[edit] International Parks

Until the acquisition of Haven by Bourne, Haven Holidays ran several parks in Europe as Haven Europe. However, these have now been sold to Siblu as part of a management buy-out. Slowly the Haven name is being dropped as is the use of the children's entertainment and clubs as featured at Haven in the UK (Tiger Club, Rory the Tiger etc).

Bourne Leisure also owns resorts in Ontario in Canada and Sarasota in Florida[6].

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ ciao.co.uk - Haven Holidays review
  2. ^ Legal & General Ventures - Bourne Leisure
  3. ^ Legal & General Ventures - Bourne Leisure
  4. ^ Haven - Far Grange homepage
  5. ^ Haven - Privacy Policy. The British Holidays name is no longer used on the site, however is retained in legal formalities
  6. ^ British Holidays - About Us (archived)

[edit] External links