Our History

It's a Proud History

Park Holidays UK was established in 1984 as a family business led by Peter Bull and Jim Watson. Their first park was Frenchman’s Beach at Rye in East Sussex, which is still a part of the Park Holidays UK portfolio today.

The business expanded with other parks in the East Sussex and Kent area joining the group which became known as Cinque Ports Leisure – the name being associated with the port towns that helped defend the UK during the Napoleonic wars.

The business continued to grow and in 2001 made a major leap forward when 11 parks were bought from Haven Holidays. These parks stretched Sandhills in Dorset to Felixstowe Beach and Suffolk Sands in Suffolk.

The business continued to prosper, with further individual parks being added. In 2006 Jim Watson retired, and Graphite Capital made a major investment into the business. This has allowed a substantial investment programme to take place, which has continued to the current day.

The company expanded into Devon with the initial acquisition of Waterside Holiday Park in Paignton and Dawlish Sands Holiday park in Dawlish Warren. In 2007 the company was renamed Park Holidays UK – to reflect our expansion away from the Kent and East Sussex area and the growing holiday and short break aspect of the business.

Today Park Holidays UK is the largest holiday park operator in the South of England, and has a portfolio of 25 of the region’s best located parks.

The award of ‘Finalist’ in the British Travel Awards in 2009 was a fitting milestone to mark the company’s progression over recent years, but we have no intention of resting on our laurels – there is always more to be done.

It’s a proud history – and we look forward to keeping the story up to date as the business continues to move forward.