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Haven Holidays

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Haven Leisure Limited
Company typePrivately Limited Company
Haven
IndustryLeisure
PredecessorBritish Holidays
Warner Holiday Camps
Ladbroke Holidays
Founded1964
Headquarters1 Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 4YL,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
41 Caravan Holiday Parks
1 Cottage Resort
Area served
England, Scotland & Wales
Key people
Paul Flaum, Chief Executive
Iain MacMillan
Simon Palethorpe
ProductsCaravan Holiday Parks
Holiday Home Sales
RevenueIncrease £271.1 million (2013)[1]
Increase £35.2 million (2013)
Increase £25.6 million (2013)
OwnerThe Blackstone Group
Number of employees
2,802 (2013)
ParentBourne Leisure Limited
Websitewww.haven.com

Haven (formally Haven Holidays) is a company operating a chain of holiday parks in the United Kingdom. It operates self catering static caravan holiday parks with many also including touring and camping facilities. The company operates 38[2] sites in the UK in predominantly coastal locations.

The company was established in 1964 and bought by the Bourne Leisure Group in 2000. In November 2004 Bourne Leisure merged its existing British Holidays chain into the Haven Holidays brand. Bourne Leisure was sold to the Blackstone Group in January 2021.[3]

History

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The current Haven chain is formed from a number of acquisitions by its former brands, including Warner Holiday Camps (now trading as Warner Hotels). By 1992 all the self catering Warner Camps were under the Haven banner.[4] Even though most Haven Parks were self catering Full Board and Half Board were available at Caister and Duporth. By 1996 Haven had reached 49 holiday parks under its banner and parks divided into three different categories; All Action Centres, Family Parks and Character Villages,[5] five parks now offered Full and Half board holidays these were Caister, (the only All Action Centre to so), Mill Rythe, Harcourt Sands, Lyme Bay and Duporth. [6]

By the year 2000 the number of Haven Holiday Parks had reached 56, by this time there were now only three parks that offered just half board holidays, these were Caister, Hafan Y Mor and Craig Tara. [7] Parks now came under four categories and were defined by four different colours, All Action Parks (Red), Lively Parks (Blue), Leisurely Parks (Yellow) and Relaxing Parks (Green) these colours formed part of the ribbon logo introduced in 1999. Part of the ribbon was then replaced between 2004 and 2007, by the British Holidays logo as Haven and British Holidays began to merge. Each Holiday Park category would reflect what type of Entertainment and Activities would take place at that Holiday Park and also reflect the size of the Holiday Park.[8] After deciding to focus more on its gaming operations such as Mecca Bingo, the Rank Group decided to sell its holiday arm. In October 2000, Bourne Leisure purchased part of the Rank Group's UK leisure arm, Rank Leisure, for £700 million, which included the Haven and its sister brand Haven Europe, now known as Siblu, Butlins, Warner Hotels and Oasis Forest Holiday Villages which were sold to Center Parcs.

Haven has always been known for its entertainment under the slogan of 'Haven Entertains'. There were entertainers at all parks the number of which depended on the size of the park. Its resident entertainers were known as Havenmates, and were famous for their stripped deckchair design jackets. After the sale of Haven to Bourne Leisure in 2000, the entertainers were renamed Funstars the same as British Holidays. Bradley Bear was also introduced to the Tiger Club and Rory and Bradleys Funtime was introduced. Over recent years the Entertainment branding has undergone further changes, with the introduction of Haven Theatre Company, when Thornwick Bay opened with a number of larger parks adopting this branding, while other parks retained the Funstar branding. Recently this changed now to Entertainment Cast and Animation Hosts. Currently as part of £110 million investment in leisure facilities making them more modern flexible spaces, with Entertainment Venues becoming Marina Bar and Stages.[9] [10] [11]

Following the purchase of Haven by Bourne Leisure they decided to restructure both Haven and British Holidays and sold off many of their smaller holiday parks. 12 of these smaller parks which were subject to a management buyout and went on to form a new holiday company; Park Resorts, some other parks were sold to Parkdean Holidays and Park Holidays UK, with Park Resorts and Parkdean later merging themselves to form Parkdean Resorts. Haven and British Holidays both retained their larger parks and Bourne Leisure began integrating them from 2002 onwards, trading entertainment and facilities between the two brands. Haven adopted much of the standardized branding used by British Holidays for its facilities since 1997; such as FunWorks (main entertainment complexes), ShowBar (live entertainment clubs) SplashZone (indoor and outdoor pools) and FoodWorks (fast food outlets), with some of this branding still used at some parks.[12] The two companies eventually merged in November 2004 under the name 'Haven and British Holidays'. Due to Haven being the better known name, the British Holidays identity was eventually dropped completely by the end of the 2007 season.[citation needed]

Acquisitions

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In 2007, Bourne Leisure purchased Far Grange Park & Golf Club. The park was initially a Haven site for both holidaymakers and caravan owners, as seen in the 2008 brochure, however after just one season, the park became Owners Only.[citation needed]

In April 2015, Bourne Leisure purchased the Thornwick & Sea Farm Holiday Centre and Greenacre West caravan parks from Flamborough Holidays Ltd;[13] Thornwick & Sea Farm holiday centre's complex was redeveloped for the 2016 season and was rebranded 'Thornwick Bay'.

In 2019, Haven ventured into a new type of resort with the purchase of Celtic Haven Spa Holiday Cottage Resort in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The Resort has 30 onsite Self Catering Cottage's, Elemis Spa, indoor swimming pool with Entertainment and Marine facilities shared with its sister park Lydstep Beach Holiday Village. Both resorts are situated in the village of Lydstep and Celtic Haven resort is the first in the Haven brand to operate 365 days a year.[14]

It was announced on 23 February 2022 that Haven had completed the acquisition of its first park since being taken over by Blackstone. Acquiring a previously family run site in Skegness, Richmond Holiday Centre, which since the 2023 season has been renamed Skegness Holiday Park. The park offers more than 700 pitches of accommodation, swimming pool, entertainment venues and restaurants and not far from Skegness beach. It is also Haven's first Holiday Park in Skegness since it owned Coastfield. [15] [16]

On the 13 March 2024 it was announced that Haven had purchased Holivans Caravan Park in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. The park is situated next door to current Haven park Golden Sands and will form part of the parks expansion. Once both parks are joined together they will form one of the biggest holiday parks in region. The acquisition forms part of Haven's growth strategy, reflecting the companies confidence in the UK's domestic tourism market, development work is due to start on park in Winter 2024 and will complement the £10 million already invested into the park. [17]

Brands at Haven

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At many Haven Parks they have teamed up with some of the nations favourite Food and Drink brands; [18]

  • Burger King
  • Papa Johns
  • Chopstix
  • Millies Cookies
  • Costa Coffee
  • Slim Chickens
  • JD Wetherspoon

Sponsorships and partnerships

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In March 2018, Haven partnered with the charity Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).[19]

In February 2019, Haven became an official sponsor of Team GB, supporting the team in the build up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.[20]

Tiger Club, Zoo Troop & Seaside Squad

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Haven currently has 4 mascots under the name “Seaside Squad” aimed to entertain younger guests, these mascots are known as:

Rory, Annie, George and Jaz.[21]

They take part in shows in the entertainment venues during the day and the evening. The Seaside Squad also participate in meet and greets with guests at other times during the day such as at Breakfast in the site restaurants and photo opportunities in the entertainment venues. [22]

The first mascot of the Haven brand was Rory the Tiger, first introduced in 1988. Before the merger with British Holidays, the Tiger Club characters underwent a complete redesign to co-inside with the Haven rebrand, the redesigns were done with Disney, giving the characters a more cartoon look. Bradley Bear was introduced in 1993 as the mascot of British Holidays, Haven Holidays' former sister brand. As the two brands merged when acquired by Bourne Leisure, the two mascots began to appear alongside each other, despite Bradley Bear not being a part of the 'Tiger Club' brand.[citation needed]

Other characters starring alongside Rory and Bradley were Greedy the Gorilla, Anxious the Elephant, Sylvester the Snake and Manic the Parrot on Rory's side, and Polly, Naughty Ned and Magical Merlin the Wizard on Bradley's side. By the end of the 2009 season, however, Haven ditched Merlin, Sylvester and Manic, and it was explained by Haven that Merlin had whisked himself, Sylvester and Manic away to a magical place and he didn't know how to get themselves back.

In 2007, the characters had a group alias for the first time namely the 'Zoo Troop' and all had new costumes by this time, in 2010 Naughty Ned was renamed DJ Ned. However, the previous brand would continue to be used alongside the 'Zoo Troop' brand until the end of the 2012 season when Haven rebranded their characters for 2013, choosing to ditch the jungle setting in favour of a Seaside setting. This resulted in a rename to the 'Seaside Squad' and Polly becoming a Lifeguard to fit in with the new Seaside themed brand. The characters once again received new costumes.

In August 2022, Haven announced that the 'Seaside Squad' would be rebranded for the next season, with the characters performing their first show beginning from October 1st 2022 – Rory will remain however he has been redesigned, Anxious has decided to use her real name "Annie" and has also had a redesign, Greedy also decides to use his real name "George" and gets the biggest redesign in which he is dyed blue. Bradley Bear will be replaced by his niece, "Jaz".[23] In a letter on the Haven website, it was further explained that Bradley Bear was moving to Florida.[24][25] Their real ages have also been revealed: Rory is 14, Jaz is 13, Annie is 12 and George is 11. They have also been given new voices. 2 of the 4 voice actors are unknown but Annie has a Yorkshire accent instead of her original American one,Jaz has a Midlands accent, Rory has a Cockney accent instead of his original American accent and George still has a Scottish accent, but is voiced by a different individual, namely Aaron Spendelow. The character of ‘Annie’ is voiced by singer and impressionist, Jess Robinson. [26]

Many regular holiday makers felt that this was too much of a change in one go, and a petition to keep the characters the same has over 3500 signatures, and is still active today.[27][28] [29]

The new Squad also sport new costumes. They each have a casual outfit and a superhero outfit. Rory's casual outfit is a Hawaiian-style button-up shirt, green shorts and white trainers, Annie wears a hot pink dress with blue polka dots and a hot pink bow situated in her hair, alongside matching blue boots each adorned with a hot pink bow. Jaz's casual outfit is a pair of yellow dungarees, a blue checkered shirt, white glasses, an orange headband and a pair of orange boots. Whereas George's casual outfit is a white t-shirt covered with multiple colours of paint splattered on, a pair of orange shorts and yellow/blue mix trainers. Their Superhero outfits are each similar with slight changes relating to what colour belts they wear and what type of sleeves they have, alongside differences in the lower half of the outfit.

Current mascots

[edit]
  • Rory the Tiger (1988–present)
  • George the Gorilla (1991–present) (formerly known as Greedy the Gorilla until 2022)
  • Annie the Elephant (1991–present) (formerly known as Anxious the Elephant until 2022)
  • Jaz Bear (2022–present)

Former mascots

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  • Bradley Bear (1993–2022) (Originally British Holidays)
  • Sylvester the Snake (1990–2009)
  • Manic the Parrot (1990–2009)
  • DJ Ned PenDragon (2000–2023) (formerly known as Naughty Ned until 2010) (Originally British Holidays) Who remains in the form of a puppet, adorning a big personality change alongside multiple other differences
  • Polly Popkins the Lifeguard (1998–2023) (Originally British Holidays) Who also remains in the form of a puppet, adorning a big personality change alongside multiple other differences
  • Magical Merlin the Wizard (2001–2009) (Originally British Holidays)
  • Prudence the Giraffe (1991-2004)
  • Sailor Sue (1998–2000) (Originally British Holidays)
  • Tommy the Soldier (1998–2000) (Originally British Holidays)
  • Rooster the Hillbilly (2000–2002) (Originally British Holidays)

Holiday parks and resorts

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There are currently 38[30] Haven parks in the United Kingdom.

The number of Haven parks peaked at 56 in 1999, not long before their merger with British Holidays in 2002, however many of the smaller parks were sold off throughout 2001 and again in October 2004 in a move that Haven said was to improve the standards of the larger and more profitable parks.

Current Haven Parks

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  • Blackpool: Cala Gran, Marton Mere
  • Cornwall: Perran Sands, Riviere Sands
  • Devon: Devon Cliffs
  • Dorset: Littlesea, Rockley Park, Seaview, Weymouth Bay
  • Essex: The Orchards
  • Kent and Sussex: Kent Coast (formerly Allhallows),[31] Church Farm, Combe Haven
  • Lake District: Lakeland
  • Lincolnshire: Golden Sands, Cleethorpes Beach (formerly Thorpe Park[32]), Skegness Holiday Park (2023)[33]
  • Norfolk: Caister-on-Sea, Hopton, Seashore, Wild Duck
  • Northumberland: Berwick, Haggerston Castle
  • Scotland: Craig Tara, Seton Sands
  • Somerset: Burnham-on-Sea, Doniford Bay
  • Wales: Greenacres, Cardigan View (a sister park to Greenacres), Garreg Wen (a sister park to Greenacres), Hafan y Môr, Lydstep Beach, Celtic Haven (a sister park to Lydstep Beach), Kiln Park, Penally Court (a sister park to Kiln Park), Presthaven, Quay West
  • Yorkshire: Blue Dolphin, Primrose Valley, Reighton Sands, Thornwick Bay, Far Grange (owners only)

Parks Owned by British Holidays before 2004

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Former & closed holiday parks (both Haven and British Holidays)

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  • Cornwall: Duporth, St. Minver, Trelawne Manor, St Ives, Mullion
  • Devon: Bideford Bay, Challaborough Bay, Lyme Bay, South Bay, Torquay, Devon Valley
  • Dorset: Chesil Beach, Sandhills, West Bay
  • Essex: St. Osyth Beach (formerly Bel Air), Steeple Bay
  • Hampshire: Mill Rythe, Solent Breezes
  • Isle of Wight: Harcourt Sands, Lower Hyde, Nodes Point, Thorness Bay, Fort Warden
  • Kent and Sussex: Alberta, Sheerness, Ashcroft, Winchelsea Sands
  • Lancashire: Beacon Fell View
  • Lincolnshire: Coastfield
  • Norfolk: California Cliffs, Heacham Beach, Cherry Tree
  • Northumberland: Riverside
  • Scotland: Wemyss Bay, Erigmore House, Sundrum Castle, Grannies Heilan Hame, Tummel Valley, Nairn Lochloy
  • Suffolk: Felixstowe Beach, Suffolk Sands, Kessingland Beach
  • Wales: Brynowen, Carmarathen Bay, Manorbier, Pendine Sands, Tŷ Mawr, Lido Beach
  • Yorkshire: Barmston Beach, Cayton Bay, Whitby

References

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  1. ^ Haven Leisure Ltd, Report and Financial Statements, 31 December 2010
  2. ^ "38 UK Holiday Parks | Family Holiday Parks in UK". Haven. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  3. ^ "HavenHolidays.com – Review – We want Rory!!!!". Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2006.
  4. ^ "Pages 2 & 3 - More Choice More Value, More Family Fun in 1992".
  5. ^ "Pages 4&5 Which Park?".
  6. ^ "Pages 28&29 Half and Full Board".
  7. ^ "Pages 18 & 19 Half Board Holidays - Dinner, Bed & Breakfast". 12 October 2018.
  8. ^ Power, Ben (28 September 2000). "Rank says goodbye to redcoats in £700m sale". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  9. ^ https://www.haven.com/discover/entertainment
  10. ^ "**2024 External Candidate Registration*".
  11. ^ "Pages 18&19 Haven Entertains". 24 January 2019.
  12. ^ "2003 Haven Brochure (2nd Edition)".
  13. ^ "Holiday parks in national deal". Bridlington Free Press. Retrieved 1 November 2015.[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ "Holiday giant buys Pembrokeshire cottage resort". www.westerntelegraph.co.uk. 19 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Major east coast holiday park bought by Haven". 23 February 2022.
  16. ^ https://www.flickr.com/photos/138824151@N06/43462499430/in/album-72157696494676050/lightbox/
  17. ^ "Haven Expands Golden Sands Holiday Park with Holivans Acquisition - Modern Campground".
  18. ^ https://www.haven.com/discover/food-and-drink
  19. ^ "Haven Holidays partners with the RNLI to save lives at sea".
  20. ^ "Team GB announce partnership with Haven".
  21. ^ "Meet the NEW Seaside Squad". Haven. 6 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  22. ^ "Meet and greets: be among the first to meet the new Seaside Squad | Haven". Haven ®. 17 November 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  23. ^ "Meet the NEW Seaside Squad". Haven. Archived from the original on 3 August 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  24. ^ ""While I'm away, remember to always help keep our beaches clean"" (PDF). Haven. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  25. ^ "Letters from the new Seaside Squad". Haven. Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  26. ^ "x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  27. ^ ""Haven Holidays announces changes to its characters - and parents are angry"". Wales Online. 2 September 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  28. ^ ""Haven holiday fans blast mascot character "glow up""". Great Yarmouth Mercury. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  29. ^ ""Save The Seaside Squad!"". Save The Seaside Squad. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  30. ^ "38 UK Holiday Parks | Family Holiday Parks in UK". Haven. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  31. ^ "Kent Coast Holiday Park in Rochester, Kent". Haven. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  32. ^ "Cleethorpes Beach Holiday Park, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire". Haven. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  33. ^ "Skegness Holiday Park, Skegness, Lincolnshire". Haven. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
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