As published in The Times, by Dom Walsh on Friday 30 September:

The hospitality sector may be finding the going tough as consumers rein in their spending but Britain’s biggest holiday park sector continues to produce resilient trading.

Parkdean Resorts, which runs 66 venues from Cornwall to Scotland, said that it had just come through a “very busy period in which our parks were full” and it was confident of another strong season next year.

Steve Richards, 54, chief executive, conceded that the business was not immune to the impact of the cost of living crisis and inflationary pressure. “We’re big energy users, but we’re mitigating what we can. It’s been very difficult but there’s isn’t a business in Britain that’s not having to face up to that.”

He said that despite the return of foreign holidays the staycation market was performing strongly. “Going on holiday as a family is one of the very last things that gets cut. People will trade down in tough times but all the evidence suggests that the UK staycation market will boom in a recession.”

He added: “People will opt not to go abroad. It’s just become a whole lot more expensive with the currency situation — and there’s all the hassle of traveling abroad.”

Parkdean, which operates at the value end of the market, has just filed its 2021 accounts, which show revenues up from £348.4 million to £537.4 million and underlying earnings rising from £58.1 million to £144.7 million on an adjusted basis. The company invested £80 million over the year, although this year it has upped that to £110 million.

Onex Corporation, its Canadian owner, had hired Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for the business, with an estimated £1.6 billion price tag, but it decided to “pause the process” and would revisit it “when the macro- economic backdrop has improved”.

Parkdean Resorts’ financial results are available to read in full by downloading here.