Huge losses continue at Haven owner as hundreds of jobs created
The group behind Haven holiday parks and Warner Leisure Hotels continued to make huge losses in 2024 despite its turnover jumping by almost £100m.
Bourne Leisure, which is owned by investment giant Blackstone, has reported a pre-tax loss of nearly £170m for its latest financial year, having also lost £166.5m in 2023.
However, new accounts filed with Companies House show the Hertfordshire-headquartered group’s turnover increased over the same period from £1.05bn to £1.14bn.
The average number of people the owner of Haven employed during 2024 also rose from 12,765 to 13,338
The group sold Butlin’s for £300m towards the end of 2022 to the Harris family, who jointly established Bourne Leisure in 1964.
Investments hit Haven owner’s bottom line
The Haven owner added that its capital expenditure totalled £188.8m in 2024, after it also spent £217.9m in the prior year.
A statement signed off by the board said: “During 2024 we continued to deliver against a number of strategic initiatives across the business.
“We improved our digital experience for our guests, owners and teams, migrated a number of our legacy systems to the cloud, improved our revenue management capability, enhanced our guests and owner propositions across each brand and constantly focused on cost reduction and mitigation against the highest levels of inflation we have seen for decades.”
It added: “The group maintained tight control over inflationary cost pressures particularly on utilities, food and labour costs, largely driven by the National Living Wage changes.
“The increase in EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation] shows the strength of the business and its resilience during periods of economic uncertainty.
“With the successful deployment of the strategic initiatives in 2024 and this strong cost control the directors expect EBITDA to continue to increase during 2025.”
For 2024, the group’s EBITDA rose from £239.7m to £261.3m.
Bourne Leisure hails ‘record-breaking year’
A Bourne Leisure spokesman added: “2024 was another record-breaking year with Haven and Warner Hotels – two of the UK’s most loved holiday park and hotel brands – delivering strong growth and reflecting the continued investment in the quality of our offering.
“Haven welcomed 3.6m guests – up 13 per cent year-on-year – and Warner continues to see exceptional demand for UK short breaks.
“Building on a strong 2024, we have committed £140m in Haven and £24m in Warner to upgrade facilities, expand capacity, and enhance the offering in 2025 – taking our total investment to £780m since 2021.
“This commitment ensures we can keep delivering exceptional holidays for our guests and owners while supporting tens of thousands of jobs across the UK.”