CARAVAN park operator Verdant Leisure is in talks to buy more sites in Scotland after growing first quarter holiday sales 18 per cent helped by an acquisition in the Scottish Borders.
Private equity-backed Verdant bought the Scoutscroft holiday park at Coldingham in February for an undisclosed sum under an expansion programme which may have some way to run.
Commercial director Bev Dixon said the company has been very pleased with trading at the Scoutscroft site.
This has fitted well into a portfolio that includes five parks in Scotland and three in North East England.
Asked if Verdant wanted to expand in Scotland, Ms Dixon said the company was in active discussions with parks in the country, without giving details.
She said the growth in first quarter holiday sales partly reflected the Scoutscroft acquisition and increases in capacity on other sites. However, occupancy also increased in the quarter, in spite of the cold weather caused by the Beast from the East in March.
The vast majority of people who could not travel rescheduled their bookings rather than cancelled them.
All five Scottish parks grew sales, some significantly.
Ms Dixon reckons Verdant continues to benefit from the increasing popularity of staycations.
“People are choosing in increasing numbers to holiday in the UK,” she said, adding: “Every year we have grown the hire business but it’s not slowing down.”
The fall in the pound since the Brexit vote has made it more expensive to holiday overseas.
Ms Dixon noted people are taking holidays over a wider period of the year, with trade becoming less concentrated on the peak and so-called shoulder months.
Caravan sales have increased since the weather warmed up around Easter.
Verdant is on course to increase annual revenues to over £31m in the current year. Sales rose to around £27.5m in the year to February from £21.5m in the preceding period.
Verdant hopes to complete one or two acquisitions in the 2018 calendar year. It has bought four parks since winning backing from Palatine Private Equity in April 2016.
Ms Dixon and Verdant’s chief executive Graham Hodgson launched Verdant by acquiring sites at Pease Bay and Thurston Manor in East Lothian in 2010. Before starting Verdant they sold South Lakeland Caravan Parks for £125m in 2007.
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