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£30m profit made from leisure company
A STAGGERING £30 million profit has been made through the sale of a leisure company with static caravan sites in the Morecambe and Lancaster area.
South Lakeland Parks, which owns the Regent caravan site in Morecambe, Ocean Edge at Heysham, Hawthorne Holiday Park at Middleton Sands and the Marina Holiday Park at Glasson Dock, has been sold for 125 million.
White Ocean Leisure Limited, a privately owned company, has exchanged contracts with the existing shareholders of South Lakeland Parks, who bought the local parks and others in South Cumbria from millionaire John Morphet just 17 months ago in a 95 million management buyout.
That deal was backed by Legal and General Investments.
The existing staff and management team throughout South Lakeland Parks will remain in place after successfully increasing the value of the business by 30 million in less than two years.
Graham Hodgson Chief Executive of South Lakeland Parks, said: "Of the potential purchasers of our business, White Ocean Leisure was our preferred option.
"It is a credit to the hard work of our staff and the board that this company has gone from strength to strength since June 2006. It just shows what progress can be made with the right people and the right investment.
"For our customers, we expect to see further upgrading and investment in the coming years so they continue to have the very best holiday and leisure experience while staying with us. The new investors are keen to grow the group both organically and through acquisitions and see the North West as an ideal platform to do this. This will result in more jobs and bring more visitors to the area boosting the local economy."
Bruce Casely, Director of White Ocean Leisure, said: "The holiday park market has extremely attractive characteristics and South Lakeland Parks are a well established, high quality business with a respected management team."
Graham Hodgson, Commercial Director Ian Gaskell, Operations Director Beverley Dixon and Finance Director Nigel Wimpenny will continue to run the business at the park's head office in Natland, near Kendal, Cumbria.
The four ambitious directors - who all hail from the North West are keen to build on the success of 2007 which resulted in over 500 holiday homes being sold and brought over 70,000 visitors to the region.
South Lakeland Parks also has three five-star sites in South Lakeland at Fallbarrow in Bowness-on-Windermere, White Cross Bay in Windermere, Limefitt in the Troutbeck Valley and Gatebeck Holiday Park near Kendal.
**Full interview with Graham Hodgson, who is also vice-chairman of Morecambe FC, in The Visitor, December 12.
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Weather for Morecambe
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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