Sykes Vacation Cottages is Acquired by Forest Holidays

Sykes Vacation Cottages is acquiring a controlling stake in Forest Holidays for an unknown price in order to expand into holiday lodges.

Forest Holidays includes 12 destinations, many of which are located in National Parks or other areas of exceptional natural beauty.

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in Scotland and the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, both of which will open later this year, are among them.

In 2022, the united group will employ over 1,700 employees and is expected to transport over 2.65 million passengers on vacation.

Under a newly established parent company, the two firms will be administered separately by their current leadership teams.

The acquisition comes as Sykes, a cottage rental company, moves closer to its goal of becoming a premier UK-focused holiday group with a varied range of rental properties.

Forest Holidays’ existing institutional investor group, led by Phoenix Equity Partners and including LDC, will have their investment realized as part of the deal.

Natural Resources Wales, Forestry England, and Forestry and Land Scotland will all relinquish their legacy minority stakes. Forest Holidays will continue to have a helpful landlord.

Vitruvian Partners backs Sykes, which has a portfolio of 22,500 holiday properties.

Graham Donoghue, the company’s CEO, stated: “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.

“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.”

Bruce McKendrick, his Forest Holidays counterpart, 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.

“We are grateful to Phoenix and our other shareholders for helping us to build the business we have today.

“Graham Donoghue and his team’s commitment to a strong purpose is impressive and we are hugely excited by the opportunity to take this ambition forward together.”