Jobs created following Cosalt Holiday Homes MBO

COSALT Holiday Homes has been bought by its former management team in a deal that will see production resume at the firm’s remaining Hull factory.

A three-strong executive team led by former sales director James Garland has bought the intellectual property rights, goodwill and plant and machinery as well as taking a five year lease on the firm’s Stockholm Road facility.

The management buyout (MBO) is also expected to safeguard the 10 remaining jobs at Cosalt Holiday Homes and create around 10 more in the short-term.

Production at the site recently halted and the business was being wound down with plans to sell it or break it up and selling the assets.

Martyn Hadfield, a 25-year veteran of Cosalt, will also take a stake in the firm and continue in his role as operations director, while Malcolm Mathieson joins the business as finance director and shareholder.

The business was acquired by Leeds-based turnaround fund Endless in October 2008 after parent company and marine specialist Cosalt struggled to find a trade buyer for the ailing caravan business.

The MBO team stepped in to save the remaining jobs and Leeds corporate financier Will Arnold of BTG McInnes Corporate Finance negotiated the sale of the only remaining division of the Holiday Homes business after the closure of the firm’s Stoneferry Road site and the loss of around 200 jobs.

Cosalt Holiday Homes, which the new management team expects to grow turnover to more than £2m in the coming year, will no longer build caravans, but instead will concentrate on the growing demand within holiday lodges and homes sectors.

The company aims to take advantage of the growing demand for lodges in the UK as leisure operators invest in high quality holiday homes, equipped with en suite bathrooms, gourmet kitchens and state of the art entertainment systems.

Mr Garland, the company’s managing director, said: “We have rescued a viable and reputable business that has a great deal of potential, and we have to now work hard to up skill the business from being dormant to returning to steady production very quickly.

“We will be inviting applications from the former Cosalt employees for the new jobs, and we are confident that we will be able to fill the skilled positions from this source, and hope to steadily build the business to becoming a major employer again in the years to come.” 

Cosalt Holiday Homes will now exclusively manufacture and sell high quality lodges to the leisure and UK holiday industry. 

The deal, structured by BTG McInnes and backed by private investment and working capital facilities provided by HSBC, will see the firm’s workforce double from its current level of 10 over the coming weeks.

Mr Arnold said: “The business that the team has acquired is a reputable and viable manufacturer, and has a great chance to grow from base with a great product, excellent manufacturing capability, a highly skilled workforce and a book of orders and strong leads.”

Production is expected to resume within weeks and a strong order book and pipeline of enquiries for the lodges from leisure operators and holiday parks across the country is anticipated to deliver 60 to 70 units in the next 12 months.

More than 280 employees lost their jobs last year after Endless closed a caravan manufacturing site at Stoneferry Road.