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 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.
History
The current Haven chain is formed from a number of acquisitions by its former brands, including Warner Holiday Camps (now trading as Warner Leisure Hotels). 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 the Rank Group's UK leisure arm, Rank Leisure, for £700 million, which included the Haven, Butlins and Warner Leisure Hotels chains. Haven parks used to come under four categories and were defined by four different colours, All Action Parks (Red), Lively Parks (Blue), Leisurely Parks (Yellow) and Relaxing Parks (Green). Each park category would reflect what type of Entertainment and Activities would take place at that park and also reflect the size of the park.
Following the purchase of Haven by Bourne Leisure they decided to restructure the company and sold off the smaller parks in the company, 12 of these smaller parks were subject to a management buyout and went on to form a new holiday company; Park Resorts, some other parks were sold to Parkdean and Park Holidays UK, with Park Resorts and Parkdean later merging themselves to form Parkdean Resorts. Haven retained its larger parks and Bourne Leisure began integrating both Haven and its existing British Holidays chain in 2002, trading entertainment and facilities between the two brands, until the two companies 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.
Acquisitions
In 2007, Bourne Leisure purchased Far Grange Park & Golf Club. The park was initially a Haven park for both holidaymakers and caravan owners, as seen in the 2008 brochure, however after just one season, the park has since become an Owners Only park.
In April 2015, Bourne Leisure purchased the Thornwick & Sea Farm Holiday Centre and Greenacre West caravan parks from Flamborough Holidays Ltd; 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 is a sister park to Lydstep Beach Holiday Village, situated in the village of Lydstep. The Celtic Haven resort is the first in the Haven brand to operate 365 days a year.
It was announced on the 23 February 2022 that Haven had completed the acquisition, of its first park since being taken over by Blackstone. Acquiring a previously family run park in Skegness, Richmond Holiday Centre, which for 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.
Sponsorships and partnerships
In March 2018, Haven partnered with the charity Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
In February 2019, Haven became an official sponsor of Team GB, supporting the team in the build up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Seaside Squad
Haven has mascots called the Seaside Squad for childrens entertainment they are:
Rory, Annie, George and Jaz.
They take part in shows in the entertainment venues during the day and the evening. The Seaside Squad also does meet and greets with guests at other times during the day such as at Breakfast in the site restaurants.
Former Mascots
The first mascot of the Haven brand was Rory the Tiger, first introduced in 1988. 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.