Activities

Center Parcs is a leading operator of short-break holiday villages in woodland and water settings in the UK.

The Center Parcs concept of offering year-round short-breaks (on top of the long breaks during the traditional holiday season) was first pioneered in the Netherlands in the 1960s.

The villages are targeted at ABC1 families with young children, young professionals, and empty nesters.

A Center Parc holiday village typically covers 400 acres and incorporates more than 800 villages, apartments and lodges in forests. A transparent dome-covered subtropical swimming paradise lies at the heart of each site.

Each village has a choice of bars, restaurants, and shops; a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports and leisure facilities; and an Aqua Sana spa.

There are four levels of accommodation: Comfort (or standard); Comfort Plus (a mid-range offer at a 15% premium to Comfort); Executive Villas (at a 35% premium to Comfort) and Exclusive (top-of-the-range, four-bedroom villas)

The group also owns the Chapel Spa business in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which may become the first of a line of standalone spas serving urban customers during the day.

Timeline

• 1967: The Center Parcs “Villa in the Forest” concept is developed by Piet Derksen in Holland, who opens the first holiday village near Reuver. More openings in the Netherlands are followed by expansion into Belgium (1981), Britain (1987), France (1988) and Germany (1995). 
• 1980: The first Subtropical Swimming Paradise opens at the new park in De Eemhof, Netherlands.
• July 1987: The first British Center Parcs village opens in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.
• August 1989: The Elveden Forest village opens in Suffolk.
• 1989: Derksen retires and UK brewer and pub operator Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) buys 74.8% of the equity in Center Parcs.
• 1991: S&N buys out the remaining 25.2% stake in Center Parcs. The group sets up a a  subsidiary, 3D Education and Adventure, in the UK which provides outdoors activities and holidays for schoolchildren and teenagers from three sites in the south of England.
• July 1994: Center Parcs opens its third UK village, Longleat Forest, near Bath in Wiltshire.
• Early 2001: S&N offloads Center Parcs in a £700m deal. It sells the three UK parks to Deutsche Bank Capital Partners (which becomes venture capital firm MidOcean Partners in February 2003 following a management buy-out). The 10 Continental parks go to a joint venture between French leisure group Pierre & Vacances and DB Capital Partners.
• September 2001: Center Parcs buys the Oasis Holiday Village, which opened in Cumbria in 1997, from the Bourne Leisure Group and renames it the Oasis Whinfell Forest.
• November 2002: Center Parcs clinches a £465m sale-and-leaseback of its four parks with Sun Capital Partners, which provides a capital expenditure facility of £30m. A fire delays the sale-and-leaseback of the fourth property, Elveden Forest, to September 2003.
• August 2003: Mid-Ocean Partners sells its 50% stake in Center Parcs Europe to Pierre & Vacances for €270m but retains Center Parcs UK.
• December 2003: MidOcean Partners sells the UK Center Parcs business to Arbor, a consortium of investors led by broker Collins Stewart, for £285m. The UK company floats on the Alternative Investment Market at 100p per share on the 11th of the month, raising £245m for new owners.
• July 2004: Center Parcs sells 3D Education and Adventures to PGL Travel for £12m in cash.
• August 2004: Center Parcs secures a new capital expenditure loan to fund £40m-worth of expansion projections. Landlord Sun Capital is to provide 70% (or £28m) of the sum.
• December 2004: The group buys the Chapel Spa business in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire for £1.3m to test the viability of standalone urban day spas. 
• March 2005: Center Parcs switches from the AIM market to the main list on the London Stock Exchange’. Sun Capital approves £10m-worth of expansion work at Sherwood and Elveden.
• June 2005: The group submits its outline planning application for a fifth holiday village (at Warren Wood, near Woburn in Bedfordshire) after evaluating more than 40 forested sites. It hopes to  open the £160m development in the summer of 2008.
• December 2005: Center Parcs signs a 21-year lease to operate a new waterfront apartment and leisure complex (Le Jardin de la Mer) that is expected to open in St Helier, Jersey, in 2008. Center Parcs will operate the 70 leisure apartments, spa, restaurant, delicatessen, leisure area, indoor pool and parking facilities at the development which will also incorporate 90 beachfront residential apartment.
• March 2006: Center Parcs directors agree to a £265m takeover bid from private investment company Blackstone Group. The deal values the company’s shares at 80p apiece, representing a 16% premium over the closing price of 69p on 8 March.
• May 2006: Blackstone announces an £825m deal to buy Center Parcs' UK properties, reversing the sale-and-leaseback arrangements made before the group's flotation in 2002. The property deal is additional to the £265m acquisition of the UK operating company. As a result of the takeover, Center Parcs delists from the London Stock Market on 15 May. The deal completes in July.
• July 2006: Center Parcs is refused planning permission to build a £160m, 700-chalet holiday village in Warren Wood, Bedfordshire. Blackstone buys seven European Center Parcs resorts from Pierre & Vacances in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. It intends to lease them back to Pierre & Vacances which will continue to operate the seven holiday villages as part of the totally separate, 16-strong Center Parcs Europe business.

Financial snapshot

Full Year

Turnover: £229.6m (2004: £227.7m)
Pre-tax profit: £26m (2004: £24.4m)

Half Year

Turnover: £113.5m (2004: £113.2m)
Pre-tax profit before goodwill, amortisation and exceptionals: £12.6m (2004: £19.4m)
Pre-tax profit: £14.8m (2004: non applicable)

Financial year end: 21 April 2005
Half year end: 6 October 2005

Operating data

In the 24 weeks to 6 October 2005:
Occupancy remained unchanged at 91.5%
Rent per villa night grew to £144.86 (from £138.57 in 2004)
Spend per sleeper increased to £24.84 (from £24.14 in 2004)

Number of holiday villages: four
Number of villas/apartments: 3,301
Number of guests per year: more than 1.5 million guests, staying an average 3.5 days per visit
Number of employees: around 5,500

Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire
786 villas, 39 apartments, 11 restaurants and bars, five shops, Aqua Sana spa

Elveden Forest, Suffolk
737 villas, 89 apartments, 11 restaurants and bars, six shops, Balinese-themed Aqua Sana spa

Longleat Forest, Wiltshire
638 villas, 60 apartments, 11 restaurants and bars, six shops, Roman-themed Aqua Sana

Oasis Whinfell Forest, Cumbria
718 lodges, 79 apartments, 14 restaurants and bars, eight shops, Aqua Sana spa

Chapel Spa, Cheltenham
Standalone spa business

Strategy

“Our focus during the half has been on developing further the four existing villages through building new executive villas, upgrading villas and enhancing restaurant and central facilities. In addition, we continue to work through the planning process for our fifth site at Warren Wood near Woburn.

Overall, forward bookings are in line on a percentage basis with the same time last year. Furthermore, bookings for the peak Christmas and New Year period are in line with management expectations.

Looking further ahead, management has entered into contracts for the procurement of electricity and gas in 2007. Despite energy prices being at record levels, our energy procurement strategy has restricted expected energy cost increases to Center Parcs to only £1.4m in 2006/07.”

Source: interim results statement, 7 December 2005

Chief executive

Martin Dalby

Key directors

Executive chairman: Martin Robinson
Head of finance: Chris Todd (temporary role from 1 March)
Sales and marketing director: Colin Whaley
IT technology director: Richard Bond
Director of development and engineering: Don Camilleri
Human resources director: Judi Leavor
Operations director: Graham White
Commercial director: Paul Kent

Contact

One Edison Rise
New Ollerton
Newark
Nottinghamshire
NG22 9DP

Tel: 0870 067 3000
Fax: 0870 067 3099

E-mail:
Website: http://www.centerparcs.co.uk