Holiday park operator eyes up further locations after £100m funding boost

Lifestyle Homes Group, the holiday park operator, has secured a £100m lending facility to expand its portfolio and even snapped up five parks across England for £15.5m recently.

The five Luxury Lodges Parks located in; Suffolk, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall will join the group’s original portfolio of five parks in County Down, Northern Ireland, which director Adrian Gleave purchased for £16.5m in March 2019.

The Manchester-headquartered group is planning six further park acquisitions within the coming months with the aim of building a £250m portfolio within five years.

Gleave, living in Cheshire, chose to re-locate with his young family in 2019 to one of the Group’s parks in Northern Ireland to gain a true insight and stay close to the business in its early stages.

Investment was focused on upgrading the parks and the overall corporate structure for “the business to scale and create shareholder value.”

Gleave purchased software from leading industry solution provider Elite Dynamics in order to enable automation of processes and procedures and key management reporting.

Adrian Gleave, director of Lifestyle Homes Group said: “After acquiring the Lifestyle Homes Group and investing in the initial five parks in Northern Ireland, I really got into the heart of the business and based myself and my family there. I could see the potential in a well-managed, higher-end holiday and residential parks company rolling out across the UK.

“During the first lockdown I set about pitching to investment firms in order to further grow the group. I identified that the market comprised of a small number of large group operators alongside many independent holiday parks. There was an obvious opportunity for a quality medium tiered company to gain traction within the market.”

The £100m loan facility was provided by a pan-European, independent investment firm, which invests in European asset-backed special opportunities. Lifestyle Homes Group was advised by Zenzic Partners (financial) and Birketts (legal).

Gleave, now back in Manchester, added: “With a young family, even before the restrictions brought about by Covid-19, foreign travel was not becoming an easy and cost-effective option and staying in the UK became preferable for us.

“Now, in our cautious post-pandemic world, it’s become an even more popular choice for many to holiday here and it looks like the staycation is set to stay.”

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