Caravan park firm secures Lloyds loan to help it through the pandemic

The firm has four parks in North Yorkshire in Balk, Langthorpe, Topcliffe and Ripon, with more than 500 caravan plots used by both residents and holidaymakers.

The business is also developing a plot of land at Gateforth Park to accommodate 168 residential park homes for the over fifties.

Development of the new site began before the outbreak of coronavirus, but its completion relied on the income from three of the four other sites. Each park was forced to close under

Government restrictions against non-essential travel, putting an immediate hold on the firm’s income.

In order to continue with the significant financial investment at Gateforth and pay overheads and staff wages for those maintaining each park during lockdown, the business approached Lloyds Bank for support and secured a £750,000 CBILS loan.

On July 4, in line with the easing of Government restrictions, the four parks reopened.

Phil Brierley, director of York House Leisure, said: “March, April and May are among our busiest months each year, but due to the current crisis, we were forced to close and have only just been able to reopen.

“Thanks to the support from Lloyds Bank, we were given the flexibility to continue paying staff wages and ensure our business was ready to welcome back holidaymakers and potential future residents during lockdown. The funding also allowed us to continue with our development plans for the new residential site, with 50 per cent of our show homes now sold.

"We are now looking forward to welcoming the residents to their new homes as we get back to normality over the coming months.”

Carolyn English, relationship manager at Lloyds Bank, said: “The Government’s ban on visiting second homes, including caravan parks, meant that those relying on income from people physically visiting their business, were hugely impacted.

“For many businesses in the tourism and leisure sectors, including York House Leisure, boosting working capital while operations were paused was essential. At Lloyds Bank we are supporting businesses like this to ease the impact the pandemic has caused as they navigate these challenging times. We’re also helping firms to introduce measures that allow them to resume normal trading quickly as restrictions begin to gradually lift.”