Pontins Sold to Former CEO's New Company

HOLIDAY†resort chain Pontin’s has been bought by investment and management company Ocean Parcs for an undisclosed sum.

The new owners plan to re-vitalise the brand, with a vision of capturing the burgeoning market for value and environmentally conscious holidays in the UK.

The business, comprising seven holiday village sites around the UK has been acquired with the assistance of finance from Abbey UK Corporate Banking.

Ocean Parcs was formed by former Pontins CEO Graham Parr, Ian Smith, Clarke Osborne and John Parr, combininga wealth of experience and knowledge of the leisure, consumer and property development industries.

Graham Parr, Executive Chairman, has spent more than 25 years in the leisure industry including a number of years as part of the senior management team of Pontin’s.

He was the first CEO of Arena Leisure, where he led the development of the business into the UK’s leading racecourse operator. He was responsible for the formation and development of “Attheraces”, a joint venture with BSkyB and Channel 4 providing live feeds to betting venues.

After his successes at Arena, Graham stepped down to concentrate on other business interests, including the successful public to private MBO of Gaming International PLC with Clarke Osborne.

He is currently Chairman of Gaming International, a property, leisure and gambling company and is Chairman of Probability PLC, the leading operator of mobile phone gambling services worldwide.

Ian Smith, Chief Executive, was previously Group Finance Director at Matalan, where he oversaw its stock market flotation in 1998 and helped to guide its phenomenal growth in the period 1990 to 2002.

Matalan was transformed into a hugely successful retailer, and not only achieved the status of most successful retail float of the 1990s but was also named Retailer of the Year in 1998 by Retail Week magazine. Ian left Matalan in 2002 after its most successful year ever.

Clarke Osborne, Property Director, is Chief Executive of Gaming International where he led the MBO in 2004. Clarke has 30 years experience in property development with major retail, residential and commercial developments to his credit.

He brings a wealth of change management and property development experience, most recently with the successful and innovative Savoy holiday village development on the Isle of Wight

John Parr, Non executive Director, is a Barrister currently practising from Chambers in Manchester.
The team will work closely with Pontin’s current management headed by Operations Director George Edwards.

Sir Fred Pontin established his first holiday “camp” or village at Brean Sands in 1946. Within a year Sir Fred had grown Pontin’s to six holiday villages, together able to accommodate over 1,300 holidaymakers at one time. Pontin`s continued to grow, rapidly expanding the number of villages and capacity and in the early 1960’s introduced the famous Pontin “Bluecoats” that remain today.

The Pontin’s estate was continually developed both in the levels of accommodation and the facilities and attractions offered.

Pontin’s changed hands a few times over the next few years until it was sold in 1989 to Scottish and Newcastle who embarked on a major revamp and modernisation of facilities.

The process of continual modernisation and rationalisation of villages has been maintained by its current owners. The Pontin’s holiday experience has come a long way from Sir Fred’s original concepts and today the business consists of 7 holiday villages attracting circa three quarters of a million guests a year situated in Blackpool, Southport, Prestatyn, Brean Sands, Camber Sands, Hemsby and Pakefield.

The new team is planning to develop the Pontin’s holiday villages and holiday experience to ensure that they are environmentally sound whilst still representing fantastic value for money.

A spokesman for the new owners said: "The business case for the investment has at its heart a belief that, in the coming years, British families will increasingly prefer to holiday in the UK, concerned not only about the environmental impact of frequent short haul air travel but also increasing concerns about security and the ‘stress factor’ of poor airport experiences."

Graham Parr, executive chairman, said: “This is almost like coming home for me. I know this business and many of its management well. I am very excited by the prospects and I am delighted to be a part of its future.”

CEO Ian Smith said: “With people becoming increasingly aware of carbon emissions and the increased costs associated with environmentally unfriendly travel, more and more people are choosing to holiday more frequently and closer to home.

"I believe Pontin’s has significant potential to increase the number of guests to its sites by adapting to the needs of the 21st century holidaymaker by adopting a modern and stylistic approach to holidaying in the UK.

"Pontin’s has some great people and I am looking forward to working with them to take the business forward in the months and years to come.

Clarke Osborne, property director, said: “Pontin’s have strong and capable management and some great locations. I know that we can add value to this brand and can enhance the quality of the experience, whilst maintaining its acknowledged value for money. We are all very excited by the prospects for this business."