Pontins is a company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. It is currently owned by Britannia Hotels. Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring regular entertainment at resorts, or "holiday parks", as they have branded them. Accommodation is usually in the form of chalets.
Company history
Fred Pontin opened his first holiday camp in 1946 on the site of a former U.S. army base, at Brean Sands near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset at a cost of £23,000. Pontin formed a syndicate, in which he held 50% control, to own the camp. Within a year he had six camps. Over the years he bought more camps and personally ran them for a year, before selling them to the syndicate. He gradually expanded his empire to thirty sites. The camps were smaller and less expensive than Butlin's holiday camps. Pontin's had Bluecoats to entertain their guests, as opposed to Butlins Redcoats. Among the Bluecoats were Shane Richie, Bobby Davro, Bradley Walsh,Nick Wilton, Lee Mack and Carol Lee Scott. In 1978, the company was sold to Coral for £56 million. In 1980, Coral was taken over by Bass Brewing, who sold Pontins in 1987 to a management buyout team led by Trevor Hemmings. It was sold again in 1989, to Scottish & Newcastle. Over the next ten years the company closed or sold off a number of sites. In a three-year programme in the mid-1990s, the remaining camps were modernised. By 2000, the company was operating only eight camps, and was sold back to Hemmings. In 2008, the company was sold to Ocean Parcs for £46 million. Wall Park holiday centre was not included in the sale. In January 2009, Pontins announced the closure of its Hemsby holiday centre. Pontins Blackpool in Squires Gateclosed in October 2009 and was subsequently demolished after being acquired by property developer Persimmon. Leaving only five parks still operating under the Pontins brand. Pontins headquarters were relocated to the Southport Holiday Park, Ainsdale in Southport. From the original Hemmings buy-out until then, the headquarters were at Sagar House in the village of Eccleston, Lancashire. In September 2009, Pontins announced a five-year multi-million investment plan for the remaining five parks. Refurbishment work completed in 2010 included a new half-board restaurant and ice skating rink at the Prestatyn Sands Holiday Park, and a new roller skating rink at the Brean Sands Holiday Park. Including proposals of re-building the Camber Sands and Southport Holiday Parks and doubling the capacity of the Pakefield Holiday Park. In November 2010, Pontins went into administrative receivership and in January 2011, the company was bought out of receivership by Britannia Hotels. In 2014, the former Pontins resort at Sand Bay was purchased by the group and it became the sixth resort to be operated under the new Pontins brand.
The 1973 British filmHoliday on the Buses was filmed at and set in the Prestatyn resort. A plaque was erected in 2004 at the main entrance gates to note this event. The same venue hosts professional snooker each year. Prestatyn Sands also hosts the finals for the annual Brass Band Festival historically, the qualifying rounds were held in other Pontins centres.
The previous On The Buses film, Mutiny on the Buses, depicted buses carrying adverts with the slogan "Go Pontinental", a chain of holiday villages set up in Continental Europe, implying that Hammer Film Productions had already established a working relationship with Pontins with a view to shooting a future film at one of their resorts.
