Prestige

Prestige Homeseeker Park & Leisure Homes is an aficionado when it comes to creating the perfect park home and home away from home with its range of lodges. With more than 50 years’ experience, the company has developed an impressive portfolio of stylish and innovative residential park homes and leisure lodges. Head of Design Andrew Chick and Production Director Ricky Higgins divulged the latest company news, in an exclusive interview with Inside Sustainability. Report by Imogen Ward.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to Prestige Homeseeker Park & Leisure Homes’ capabilities. Determined to provide customers with the very best experience, the company has designed a whole host of options that can be adapted to meet the needs of each and every customer.

“When it comes to providing the perfect product, we maintain a highly flexible approach,” said Head of Design Andrew Chick. “Prestige has been built on a desire to exceed the customer’s expectations, and the expertise this requires has afforded us a level of design innovation that is unparalleled.”

With origins dating back to the ‘70s, Prestige was initially established under the name Panther Caravans. The company

was then reformed in 1984, taking on the Homeseeker name, before being acquired by up-and-coming company Prestige Park & Leisure Homes in 2013, when the two companies merged to become the UK’s leading holiday lodge and residential park home manufacturer.

“When Prestige Park & Leisure Homes acquired Homeseeker, the company’s factory was included in the deal,” Andrew explained. “We believe this is the best manufacturing facility in our industry, because it is purpose built for manufacturing park homes – which is rare in our business.”

This Rushden-based factory later became Prestige’s HQ and was supported by a second facility in Kettering.

Over the years, Prestige has strived to enhance and broaden its product portfolio,

including the development of lodges aimed specifically at the rental market through strong relationships with customers such as Darwin Escapes.

Prior to supplying to customers like Darwin Escapes we were more focused on the residential market,” said Production Director Ricky Higgins. “Darwin Escapes really opened our eyes to the leisure industry, and the possibilities that accompanied it. Today, the popularity of our leisure models has surpassed that of our residential builds.”

Supportive surroundings

With a growing product range, Prestige made the decision to move its second facility closer to its HQ. This helped boost the company’s output capacity by a whopping

HOWDENS

The Howdens Wellingborough depot has served the local community since 2004, boasting a team of dedicated staff with more than 120 years of experience working with the trade. We’ve proudly suppled Prestige Homeseeker with kitchens and joinery since 2017, and we look forward to working with them for many years to come

editorial mention

37%, whilst also positioning the full company perfectly within a 10-mile radius of its main suppliers.

From the practicality of a park home to its harmonious holiday lodges, Prestige provides a diverse portfolio, which also includes commercial units such as offices and marketing suites, and more recently floating homes. The latter of these, was only possible thanks to the determination and support of its suppliers.

“We entered the floating home market five years ago, but actually getting to that point had its own challenges,” said Ricky. “Technically, we had to overcome the issue of weight displacement on the water. You can’t just put a load of floats of the same size on the home and then overload one side because it will lean over. Pontoon specialist Solent Marine,

worked in close collaboration with us to overcome this challenge and now supplies all of the flotations for our range of floating homes.”

“Plumbing was another issue,” Andrew added. “In a standard park home, the plumbing simply goes down through the floor into a void under the home, but we don’t have that luxury on a floating home, so we had to move the plumbing to be inside the home which brings with it a whole new set of challenges.”

With an average of 3,500 items required for each of its homes, Prestige relies on a wide range of specialist suppliers to provide each of these elements.

“We rely on an excellent cohort of businesses,” said Ricky. “Having the right suppliers really facilitates the growth and development of our business, and we couldn’t innovate without their support. We can’t be experts at everything – and we wouldn’t want to be – with our reliable partners we don’t have to be.”

The company has recently been working in partnership with its chassis supplier, Gateway Fabrications, to accommodate a particularly unusual customer request.

No stranger to designing stylish rooftop terraces, Prestige was recently asked to

develop one that would be strong enough to support a hot tub. The company has plenty of experience meeting the requirements of bespoke projects, so jumped at the opportunity to develop the perfect solution.

The Prestige team successfully co-designed a steel structure which was strong enough to safely support a hot tub, along with its occupants, but which importantly did not put additional load on the home’s roof.

Developing designs

When it comes to designing, Prestige is committed to developing highly efficient homes that are future proof.

“Our suppliers provide us with responsibly sourced materials,” Andrew explained. “We utilise timber frames, which are easily recycled at end of life, and we carefully design our models to be energy efficient; in particular our choice of insulation is very specific; we rely on two types of insulation in our exterior walls to provide primary and secondary heat retention. This is quite an unusual practice in our industry.”

The company has also introduced an energy-efficient shower option, which is available to anyone looking to add a sustainable touch to their home and provides a water saving of around 50%.

“We are constantly looking to expand our sustainable choices, with requests for these options increasing,” continued Andrew. “Typically, we get around two customers a month enquiring about the addition of solar panels to their designs, for example.”

“We are actually in the process of adapting our designs to make all our homes solarready,” Ricky added. “Future-proofing our

Production

Director Ricky Higgins

Head of Design Andrew Chick

designs will be pivotal for our success, as we expect the demand for renewable energy to continue rising into the future.”

Exciting developments

Never one to stand still, Prestige released several new models last year, including a brand-new flagship lodge. Providing new levels of boutique luxury, The Tempest is unique to the market thanks to its daring architectural design.

“Prestige is known for its light bulb moments,” Andrew explained. “We don’t follow the crowd – we’d like to think that our designs help shape the industry.

Keen to continue its successful innovation, the company has six new or reinvented models lined up for the rest of 2024. Ranging from entry-level specifications to more opulent high-end models, there will be something for everyone in these latest additions.

“Last year was a fantastic year for launching new products,” Andrew continued.

“We attended several shows to promote these new models and had an amazing response from potential customers, which went on to result in many orders. That formula worked really well for us, so we intend to replicate it again this year, with six new and exciting products planned.”

The company also intends to further develop its quality systems, to increase its digitisation and improve transparency.

“We have always had quality systems in place, but we want to spend some time in the coming months refining these and improving them, to provide more clarity to our customers,” Ricky said.

When discussing Prestige’s continued commitment to improvement, Ricky added, in conclusion: “There is always something new and fresh at Prestige. We have a great team onboard that is prepared to make changes and try something different to really enhance the quality of the product. That really helps us stand out from the crowd. ” n