 Center Parcs UK is a short break holidays operator with four village locations across the UK.
The villages, each set in 400 acres of forest with lakes and streams, focus on active holidays for the family and offer a wide range of sporting activities. Accommodation in Center Parcs is provided in the form of villas, apartments and holiday lodges of which there are over 3,300. Center Parcs UK has about 1.5 million visitors every year and has an average occupancy rate of over 90%.
Transaction
In 2001, while at DB Capital Partners, the team acquired Center Parcs UK from Scottish & Newcastle plc. Later in 2001, the team acquired the only direct UK competitor, the Oasis Holiday Village near Penrith, which was taken over by Center Parcs UK under the name Oasis Whinfell Forest. In 2003, the team ran an accelerated IPO process of the combined business and achieved a full exit.
Investment Overview
Having acquired the Center Parcs Europe business a year earlier, the team was confident about the value creation opportunities in Center Parcs UK and that a new capex approach could generate the growth that had historically been lacking. In addition to the successful new and re-engineered capex programme, we introduced new performance-based compensation schemes. We worked actively to move the acquired Oasis Holiday Village to Center Parcs operating standards and achieved significant cost savings which led to strong EBITDA growth.
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