David joined Abbeyford in the 1990s, becoming Chairman in 2011, having first pursued his own career as an electrical mechanical engineer, running his own successful company for a number of years.
Castaway (forest) holiday home at Elie Holiday Park
“It was a tradition in the family that you needed to go off and experience other types of work before joining the business. I am grateful that I did that, I feel it has made a great difference to the way I run the company. If I had joined at 16, I am not sure this would be the same business it is today,” he says. Abbeyford Leisure now owns 6 parks – three in Scotland and three in North Wales. Abbeyford, Lyndale and Kingsley Holiday parks are exclusively for holiday home owners and are all based on the North Wales Coast. “We see the same faces come to the parks most weekends,” says David. “There is a great sense of community and people use the parks as a base to go sightseeing in the area. A lot of our guests bring their dogs, that’s a big part of the attraction.” Elie Holiday Park joined the group in the 1970s – based in Fife – it is a hidden jewel, accessed by a forest road with a sandy beach right on the doorstep. In 1984, Abbeyford acquired St Andrew’s (formerly Kinkell Braes) and St Monans Holiday Park. “There is no particular reason why we have parks in Scotland and Wales,” says David. “In fact, the group has bought and sold a number of parks over the years including one in Ireland and we also had our own caravan dealership for a time. We are still on the
lookout for new park acquisitions like many in the industry although we are happy to wait it out until the right one comes along.” Given the size and geographical spread of the business, David splits his time between the two locations and is lucky enough to have a fantastic team to back him up. “Although this is still a family business, we have definitely moved away from the ‘one guy’ fiefdom of the old-school. It’s not about me, it’s about Abbeyford Leisure and the people I have brought in to support the business. This has been one of the strongest contributing factors to our success, the people I have brought in to the management team – I am not an expert accountant for example, so we all have skills to complement each other.”
Robinson Crusoe Adventures at Elie Holiday Park
It is a format that seems to work well for the staff as well as the parks. Abbeyford Leisure has won an impressive number of awards. “One of the awards we are most proud of is when we named as one of the most inspiring businesses in Britain and among the top performing firms included in the "London Stock Exchange 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain" for 2016,” says David. “This is not an award that we entered, it was judged independently and we were compared with other companies of our type and size, so it really was a big deal.” Also in 2016, Abbeyford Leisure was named one of the top places to work in the UK as part of The Sun's Best of British initiative, ranking higher than many big brand names including Tesco and Premier Inn. Abbeyford group was the only holiday park operator in the country to receive such recognition. The Sun Awards celebrate UK-owned companies creating jobs, building local communities and keeping the economy growing. Staff vote for their own firms, ranking them on dozens of factors including career progression, community support and working environment. Creating a close connection with the local community is also very important to Abbeyford Leisure. The company has sponsored local football teams, donated furniture to local charities and contributed towards the building of sports infrastructure in their local areas. “We feel it’s very important to give back to our local area,” says David. “As Abbeyford Leisure grows and our head office is no longer on the park itself, we want to make sure that we retain those close links with the people who live nearby.”
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