M&A could shine at Northern Irish holiday park after PE deal

A Northern Irish holiday park business is targeting M&A after securing investment from private equity firm Melior Equity Partners.

Blair’s Holiday Parks was established in 1978 by Tom Blair, the uncle of the current co-owner and managing director Colin Mayrs. It operates three parks in Portrush including Hilltop, Craigahulliar and Blair’s and Castlewood on the eastern shores of Lough Neagh. They include attractions such as gyms and tree top adventures.

Following the investment Mayrs will retain an equity stake in the business and will continue as managing director for an interim period. The senior leadership team will remain in their roles to oversee an expansion plan which will include the acquisition of new sites across Northern Ireland.

A new chairman, Tim Gibson, former managing director of Haven, one of the UK’s largest holiday park businesses, and former executive director of Away Resorts, a private equity backed, rapid growth holiday park business, will collaborate with Mayrs to lead the business.

Mayrs said: "The future for Blair’s is not only secure, but very exciting now. I have built the business over 20 years, and now feel it’s the right time for new investors to take the reins. My management team and I are completely confident in Melior Equity Partners’ ability and capacity to take the business forward, expand it, create new jobs and keep the quality of experience for our customers as strong as we have always wanted it to be."

Peter Garvey and Esmond Greene led the investment on behalf of Melior Equity Partners. "We are very familiar with the company having spent over 18 months in discussions with Colin," said Garvey. "Blair’s has an excellent team who create a wonderful environment for our loyal customer base. We are very excited by the fact that we will have the full support of Colin and his leadership team as we introduce additional talent, including our new chairman, Tim Gibson, to drive the business to the next level."

UK parks were boosted by the staycation trend during the pandemic, and figures suggest that at least half of Brits continued to holiday at home this year.

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