The parks are located at six sites - Whitecliff Bay (Isle of Wight), Mill Rythe (Hampshire), Tattershall Lakes (Lincolnshire), Barmouth Bay (Snowdonia National Park), Mersea Island (Essex) and Sandy Balls (New Forest) and all provide a range of high quality accommodation choices from luxury holiday lodges and cottages with private hot tubs to camping facilities.
In addition to the stunning park locations, the activities offered by Away Resorts are the cornerstone of its business, allowing guests to take part in ‘Meet the Dinosaur’ days, butterfly farming, ‘Rock the Bay’ and ‘Rock the Lakes’ festivals, cream pie fights, outdoor cinema events and evening shows choreographed by renowned West End directors.
In April 2015 LDC supported the secondary buyout of Away Resorts from CBPE Capital.
LDC invested £18.5million to support the team in delivering their organic growth plan, capitalising on the buoyant market for ‘staycations’ in the UK and provide capital to support further high quality acquisitions to complement the current Away Resorts portfolio.
The business will significantly invest in its parks, creating additional capacity by developing existing planning permissions and upgrading accommodation, as well as continuing to improve its central facilities, such as swimming pools, gyms, spas, bars and restaurants and water sports.
In 2016 Away Resorts completed the acquisition of Cosways Holiday Park, as part of its support for the business’ strategy to identify high quality acquisitions to complement its portfolio and grow its share of the UK market. The same year a three-year, £12million improvement plan is now being implemented at Tattershall Lakes.
In January 2017 Away Resorts completed the acquisition of Sandy Balls Holiday Village in the New Forest, which subsequently forms a group with six sites valued in excess of £100million. The deal was supported by additional capital from LDC. With the addition of Sandy Balls, the business now has an annual turnover of over £40million, up more than 20% since LDC first backed the business, and employs 650 staff across its portfolio of sites.
