Bourne Leisure

Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Leisure / Holidays
Founded	1964 (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)
Operating income	£225.0m (group, 2015)
Net income	£151.7m (group, 2015)
Owner	First Ovalap Limited (97%)
Number of employees	c.14,000 (group, 2015)
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.bourneleisuresales.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 including Haven Holidays, Butlins and Warner Leisure Hotels.

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

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. Through this the Harris, Cook and Allen families are the joint majority owners.

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. 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. 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, 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.