Britain’s Favourite Seaside Holiday |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Leisure / Holidays |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK |
| Number of locations | 35 Caravan Parks in UK |
| Area served | UK |
| Key people | John Dunford (Chief Executive) Jane Bentall David Whitelam |
| Products | Caravan Holiday Parks Caravan Sales |
| Revenue | £271.1m (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | £35.2m (2010) |
| Net income | £25.6m (2010) |
| Employees | 2,802 (2010) |
| Parent | Bourne Leisure Limited |
| Website | www.haven.com |
Haven Leisure Limited is a company that operates 35 holiday parks in the United Kingdom. The current company was created as Haven & British Holidays in 2004, following the amalgamation of the British Holidays chain with the Haven Holidays chain, which British Holidays' parent company, Bourne Leisure, purchased from The Rank Group in 2000. [2] It now entirely trades as Haven.
Although the Haven name is now used for the combined chain, the existing company is, in effect, a continuation of British Holidays. Haven and British Holidays makes Bourne Leisure the largest caravan park operator in the UK.[3]
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The current Haven chain is formed from a number of acquisitions by its former brand, British Holidays, from the late 1980's, cumulating in the acquisition of Rank Leisure in 2000.
In October 2000, Bourne Leisure purchased The Rank Group's UK leisure arm, Rank Leisure, for £700 million, which included the Haven, Butlin's and Warner Leisure Hotels chains. At the time of acquisition, Rank Leisure's Haven Holidays operated 55 resorts, whilst British Holidays operated 23.
Bourne decided to retain larger operating units which accounted for approximately 85% of their customer flow, making it possible to upgrade the Haven parks to the same standard of the British Holidays chain.[3]
Subsequently, the company disposed of 43 Haven and British Holidays resorts between 2001 and 2004. A number were sold to independent ventures and management buy-outs (for example, British Holidays' Lido Beach in Prestatyn, Clwyd [1]). However a number of growing leisure chains acquired larger quantities of sites, including :-
Far Grange Park & Golf Club[4], Skipsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, was purchased by Bourne Leisure in 2007, being the first acquisition by Bourne Leisure since Rank Leisure in 2000. The park appeared in the Haven 2008 holiday brochure, issued in November 2007 [5]. However it has since been removed and now trades as a separate entity to the Haven chain in the Bourne Leisure group.
Following Bourne's acquisition of Rank Leisure, the company began integrating its Haven and British Holidays chains during a seven year development phase. The brands "Haven Holidays" and "British Holidays" continued to trade independently until 2004, when both released a single brochure and website under the name "Haven and British Holidays".
In 2006, most advertising for the chain solely used the "Haven" name despite the company still continuing to legally trade as Haven & British Holidays. Finally in November 2007, the company ceased trading as "British Holidays" and the Haven name is now used throughout the chain, however the British Holidays logo can still be seen in many old signs and materials at former British Holidays parks.
Activities and facilities across all parks use standardised branding 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), "Mash and Barrel" (restaurant and bar) and "FunZone" (outdoor family activity / playground areas). In addition, all parks have a general store (branded asEverydays, Essentials, not at all or more recently SPAR or Londis), reception and a Haven Holiday Homes focusing on caravan sales, often branded as "Owners Exclusive" within the parks themselves.
The ShowBar entertainers, since 1998, have been known as "FunStars", replacing the "Haven Mates" title in former Haven resorts.
The children's mascot in Haven was previously Rory the Tiger and in British Holidays was Bradley Bear. However, since merging, both mascots are seen in all parks, alongside other children's characters from both former companies such as Greedy the Gorilla, Anxious the Elephant and human characters Ned and Polly. Merlin was scrapped in 2009. In 2008, Haven launched 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. Part of the Kids Alive programme in Haven is "Wake and Shake" which is a warm up programme the kids do in club R n B as a warm up to start the day. however this has since been replaced by B Fit with Rory, a wake up show were children get active with Rory and the FunStars
In the UK, Haven operate thirty-five parks:
Scotland Seton Sands, Craig Tara
Northumberland Berwick, Haggerston Castle
Yorkshire Blue Dolphin, Primrose Valley, Reighton Sands
Lincolnshire Thorpe Park, Golden Sands
Norfolk Caister, Hopton Seashore, Wild Duck
Essex Orchards
Kent Allhallows-on-Sea
Sussex Combe Haven, Church Farm
Dorset Rockley Park, Little Sea, Seaview, Weymouth Bay
Devon Devon Cliffs
Cornwall Riviere Sands, Perran Sand
Somerset Doniford Bay, Burnham on Sea
South Wales Lydstep Beach, Kiln Park, Quay West
North Wales Greenacres, Hafan y mor, Presthaven Sands
Blackpool Marton Mere, Cala Gran
Lake District Lakeland
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 (Club R n B , Little Cubs , T-CO, Rory the Tiger etc.). In Siblu parcs they now have Bubbles, Pirate Club and Barracuda.
Bourne Leisure also owns resorts in Ontario in Canada and Sarasota in Florida.[6]