INTERVIEW
MARTIN DALBY
As Center Parcs’ fifth park opens, the company’s CEO talks to Magali Robathan about overhauling the planning process, eyeing up Ireland and further afield
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n 6 June, Center Parcs’ fifth UK village, Center Parcs Woburn, opened to the public. It was a long time coming for many people; none more so than Center
Parcs’ chief executive Martin Dalby. “It was a bit surreal,” says Dalby, of the opening day. “I was up at six, pac- ing around the lodge where I was staying. We’d been working on the park for so long, and had to jump through so many hoops to get to this stage, I couldn’t quite believe we’d done it. The dream had finally come true.” It took 10 years from finding the site to opening the new village, and at one point it looked as though it might never
happen, when the planning permis- sion was refused by Mid Bedfordshire District Council. Center Parcs appealed the decision and permission was even- tually granted in September 2007. But just when it looked as though things were back on track, the reces- sion hit and construction was put on hold, delaying the project further. In 2012, the company refinanced its debt and raised £150m towards the construction of Woburn Forest (with Blackstone committing an additional £100m), and in May 2012 construction began in earnest. Two years later, on a sunny June morning, Dalby and the team got ready to welcome the first pay- ing guests to the park.
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital “It was a day to remember,” says
Dalby. “Around 10am we got the first 20 families into the park together. We gave them a glass of champagne, I said a few words of welcome. The sun was shining brightly. It was a nice moment.”
WOBURN FOREST Center Parcs has stuck to its exist- ing formula with Woburn Forest – with occupancy at 97.2 per cent over the previous 12 months across the other four UK villages and 1.7 million peo- ple visiting, the management are not likely to muck around with their offer too much. The site is 362 acres, and it features 625 lodges, a 75 bed- room hotel, a lake, 16 restaurants and
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2014
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