Bourne Leisure

Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Leisure / Holidays
Founded	1964 (1964) (original predecessor company)
Founder	Peter Harris
Headquarters	Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK
Number of locations	35+1 Caravan Parks 3 Holiday Parks 13 Leisure Hotels
Area served	UK
Key people	Peter Harris (Chairman) John Dunford Jane Bentall Dermot King
Products	Holiday Parks Caravan Parks Caravan Sales Leisure Hotels
Revenue	£813.7m (group, 2011)[1]
Operating income	£186.1m (group, 2011)[1]
Net income	£71.0m (group, 2011)[1]
Owner	First Ovalap Limited (97%)
Number of employees	11,724 (group, 2011)[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.butlins.com www.haven.com www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk

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.

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. Other members of management, related trusts and banks complete the share register. Peter Harris (the founder of the original company in 1964) is the present company chairman^[1] and John Dunford is the director in the leading executive role.^[3]

The main trading companies in the Bourne Leisure group in the UK are,

• Haven Leisure Ltd which operates 35 family-oriented caravan holiday parks in England, Scotland and Wales.
• Butlins Skyline Ltd which operates the three Butlins holiday parks at the English coastal resorts, Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness. (These are the last three camps operating under the Butlins name from the ten originally founded by Billy Butlin)
• Bourne Holidays Ltd which operates 13 hotels across the UK under the brand name Warner Leisure Hotels, 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.

Part of Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel, a Warners Leisure Hotel near Rhyl in north Wales

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 ).

Company Details

As of 2010, Bourne Leisure employs 5,023 permanent staff, only 5% of whom earn over £35,000 per annum, and the average age of staff is 35.^[10]

News

In 2008, Bourne Leisure came in the top 20 of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, a list generated in the UK by The Sunday Times newspaper. In 2009, Bourne Leisure was awarded 2nd place, however, in 2010 this slipped to 9th place.^[11]

In June 2011, Bourne Leisure group was ranked 62 in the annual The Sunday Times Top Track 100, which ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the biggest sales.^[12][13] This is the ninth year the company has been ranked in the Top Track 100, the highest position reached being 45 in 2006.

References

External links

• Haven.com
• Butlins Holidays
• Warner Leisure Hotels
• Bourne Leisure Limited
• Haven Holiday Homes
• UK Holiday Home Sales