Holiday cabin and lodge operator Forest Holidays has been sold to the national Sykes Holiday Cottages group in a reported "nine figure" deal.
Sykes is one of the biggest holiday rental companies in Britain, promoting 22,500 holiday homes. The combined group will employ 1,700 people and look after more than 2.5 million customers this year.
The two businesses will be run independently by their existing leadership teams under a newly formed parent company. It comes after private equity firm LDC sold its stake in Forest Holidays after 10 years.
Bruce McKendrick is chief executive of Forest Holidays which is based in the village of Moira on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border in the National Forest. He said: "Forest Holidays has always sought to balance social, environmental and economic benefit.
“The benefits we bring to physical and mental well-being are more important than ever and in Sykes we have found a partner who shares this ethos.
“They also recognise the importance of our long-term partnership with the Forestry Commission and our shared objective to offer holidays that are good for people, good for nature and good for the environment.
“I’m grateful for LDC’s long-term support and for backing our plans to continue to invest in our locations throughout the pandemic.”
Graham Donoghue, chief executive of Cheshire-based Sykes, said: “As the UK’s leading provider of woodland accommodation, Forest Holidays is the perfect complement to our existing holiday cottage rental business, offering our respective customers an unrivalled choice and quality of accommodation across a variety of settings.
“We’ve been impressed by what Bruce McKendrick and his team have achieved and are excited by our common purpose with a focus on environment, local and rural communities at the core of our businesses.
“It’s also a transformative acquisition for Sykes which creates a UK-focused multi-brand holiday group with market-leading technology, service and product.
“Looking ahead, we’re ideally placed to fly the flag for UK tourism and showcase the very best our islands have to offer from coast to country.”
The sale will also see Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales divest their legacy minority stake in Forest Holidays.
To date, Forest Holidays has invested more than £100 million its UK forest sites. It provides short breaks and log cabin holidays in 11 UK forest locations – two in Scotland, one in Wales and eight spread across England.
Earlier this year it confirmed its 12th UK site with a multi-million pound investment in the Brecon Beacons National Park.
The investment at Garwnant in Merthyr Tydfil, will create 60 jobs and provide an estimated annual boost of £1.5 million to the regional economy.
Scheduled to open in December it will provide 40 timber built cabins offering overnight accommodation in 400 acres of woodland at the southern edge of the national park.
It will be the company’s second location in Wales, the first one having opened in Snowdonia National Park in 2018.
LDC first invested in Forest Holidays in 2012 and during that time the management team has opened five new locations.
David Bains, partner and head of East Midlands and East of England at LDC, said: “Forest Holidays is a real East Midlands success story.
“From their head offices in Derbyshire, Bruce and his team have sensitively developed the UK’s leading provider of cabin holiday experiences at some of the nation’s most astounding locations of natural beauty.
“We’re proud to have played a part supporting their expansion over the last 10 years.”
