Sale of Discover Leisure sites raises £5m

THE sale of four former dealerships of failed caravan and motor home dealer Discover Leisure has raised over £5m.

A site at Chester Road at Oakmere, near Northwich in Cheshire has been sold to motorbike dealership J&S Accessories, while sites at Flaxton Moor in York and Birtley on Tyne and Wear were sold to Catterick Caravans. A site at Darlington in Co Durham was bought by Kimberley Caravans and negotiations are ongoing for a fifth former dealership at Chapel Lane, Coppull, Lancs, with an unnamed buyer.

The sites have all been sold by the Manchester office of Sanderson Weatherall on the instruction of joint administrators Paul Flint and Mark Firmin of KPMG.

Discover Leisure PLC and its trading subsidiary Signlease were placed into administration in October 2011 with the loss of about 250 jobs. The two businesses were struggling with cashflow problems and had been impacted by reduced demand for big-ticket purchases such as caravans and motor homes.

An administrators’ report filed in December stated that the firm owed £10.3m to its principal lender NatWest and another £7.3m under an asset finance deal to Black Horse. The company also owed almost £35m to unsecured creditors.

Sanderson Weatherall said it is also planning an online auction of more than 200 domain names related to caravans, motor homes and leisure-related websites, including sites associated with finance and insurance products.

The firm has already raised £1m through the sale and online auction of around 60 new and pre-owned caravan and motor homes, as well as camping and caravanning accessories, fixtures and fittings and plant and machinery from former Discover Leisure sites.

Mark Lord, partner, machinery and business assets at Sanderson Weatherall, said: “Whilst we obviously regret the demise of a business and consequent loss of jobs, we’re delighted to have secured the sale of four of the five dealerships and remain confident of being able to conclude a successful sale of the Coppull location.”