Fast-growing holiday homes firm behind Scottish forest cabin sites pushes into static caravan sector

A company that recently acquired a holiday park business with two Scottish sites has bought the UK’s top static caravan rental website.

Sykes Holiday Cottages’ acquisition of UKcaravans4hire for an undisclosed sum comes just weeks after the company took a controlling stake in Forest Holidays, which has Scottish forest cabin sites in Argyll and Strathyre.

UKcaravans4hire was established more than ten years ago and connects holiday makers to more than 6,000 holiday homes located across the UK, including in Scotland.

Following the acquisition, the Huddersfield-based business will continue to be run independently by its existing leadership teams but will sit under a newly formed parent company.

The combined group of businesses under Sykes’ leadership, whose own platform provides access to more than 22,500 holiday homes, are estimated to take more than 2.65 million customers on holiday in 2022. The group employs more than 1,700 people and is on track to deliver in excess of £170 million of revenues in 2022.

Graham Donoghue, chief executive of Chester-headquartered Sykes, said: “As the UK’s leading provider of static caravan rentals, UKcaravans4hire is the perfect business to have by our side as we enter into this new market, offering UK holidaymakers an unmatched choice of affordable and high-quality accommodation.

“It’s a transformative time for Sykes as we accelerate our ambitions to become the leading name for UK tourism. We see huge potential in UKcaravans4hire to serve what is currently an underserved market, applying our expertise and market-leading technology to grow the business and catapult it to even greater success.”