OUR FIVE-YEAR PLAN
Butlin’s Five-Year Plan is our growth strategy aimed at both welcoming more guests to Butlin’s year-round and attracting a greater cross-section of the UK to both family and adult-only breaks. Butlin’s has always had a core of loyal guests – c.1.2 million for many years – which is the foundation of the business. The Five-Year Plan builds on this, governed by the following three pillars.
CAPITAL INVESTMENT
The first growth pillar is a £150 million capital investment programme which will benefit our guest accommodation, the activities that we offer, the dining options available on resorts, and our key entertainment venues – broadening our proposition and optimising the experience for our existing and future guests.
We have been delighted with the positive feedback from guests for some of the investments that we have already made such as the SKYPARK playgrounds in Skegness and Minehead and our 128 new premium lodges in Skegness.
MARKET LEADING UK HOLIDAYS
Secondly, expanding the quantity, range, and variety of breaks we offer. Butlin’s is a market leader in UK family holidays, with our popular ‘School’s Out’ family breaks in the school holidays, and our midweek ‘Showtime’ breaks to cater for pre-school families in term time.
Alongside our family breaks, we offer ‘Butlin’s Big Weekenders’, exclusively for adults, with a wide variety of themed weekends to choose from. We are also building our conference and events offerings for large groups and businesses. This differentiated guest proposition helps us to manage seasonality, expanding our future growth potential. We are already reaping rewards from catering for different sections of the market as it is now more profitable for us to be open longer, which has grown our revenue stream.
OUR TEAM
Our third pillar is our most important: our team. We know how much the guests value our team, and there is a strong link between great guest experiences and their interaction with our resort teams and our iconic Redcoats.
We are investing in multiskilling our team members through a programme called ‘Team Member Plus’. This is aimed at increasing overall productivity and flexibility, while investing in their growth, development and pay, and supporting their overall career development. By investing in the growth and development of our team members, we help transform jobs into long-term, rewarding Butlin’s careers.
We are proud that we have team members who have been with Butlin’s for decades across the three resorts. With the support on offer, many of them have developed into senior leaders.
INVESTMENT CASE
- Butlin’s has squarely positioned itself in the UK holiday market as the Home of Entertainment. We can deliver scale, quality, best in class entertainment and variety that no-one else can match. The UK holiday market is worth £14 billion annually, and Butlin’s has an opportunity to make the most of nationwide customer demand by successfully delivering its growth strategy.
- Butlin’s has created a distinct point of difference from most short break operators as a destination designed for non-stop activity and action, most of which is included in the price of the break. This includes accommodation, access to all live shows and headline performers.
- We’ve developed a very clear guest proposition: for families in school holidays (School’s out); for pre-school families in term time (Showtime); for over 18s on a social trip (Big Weekenders); and for fun and entertaining conferences. All of these offerings combined have helped us to open more of the year, cover a wider range of guests, and have driven our occupancy up by 15% since 2018.
- We know how much the guests value our team, and there’s a strong emotional link between great guest experiences and their interaction with our resort teams. We offer best-in-class entertainment teams, including our iconic Redcoats who have recently revived their role, and we’re investing in the growth and development of our team members to turn jobs into careers.
- Butlin’s has shown fundamental resilience over many years. Between 2005 and 2019, a period which included the Global Financial Crisis and a huge growth in budget flights into Europe, the resorts maintained guest numbers of c.1.2 million per year.
- In the coming years, we’ll continue to invest in our sites to upgrade and modernise our entertainment and accommodation offerings at all three of our resorts in accordance with our Five-Year Plan. Butlin’s will observe trends and listen to guest feedback to ensure we maintain the optimum balance of product offerings, which allows us to be both nimble and resilient during upturns and downturns in the economy.