Row Over Pontins Administration

A public battle has erupted between Santander and the owner of Pontin’s after the UK holiday camp firm was placed in administration on Friday.

Pontin’s owner Graham Parr has reportedly accused Santander, the firm’s bank, of not granting him and the firm’s directors enough time to turn the firm around.

In dispute is a £5m revolving overdraft facility granted to Pontin’s, of which £2.25m was drawn. Santander also extended £40m of loans to the firm, of which £7.5m were due to be repaid by March this year.

However Santander rebutted Parr’s claims, saying that the firm had not restructured its debts as agreed, and pointing out that Pontin’s directors, not the bank, made the decision to place the firm into administration last week.

Jane Moriarty, David Costley-Wood and Rob Croxen of KPMG have been appointed as joint administrators to handle the case.

Moriarty said, “Pontin’s is an iconic British brand which forms the backdrop to thousands of treasured family holiday memories.

“It has unfortunately struggled in the current economic environment but, with some support from new management, we are optimistic that it will be part of thousands of family memories in the years to come.”

The firm employs around 850 staff across five sites in Brean Sands in Somerset; Camber Sands in Sussex; Pakefield in Suffolk; Prestatyn Sands in Wales and Southport in Merseyside.

A statement from KPMG said that all five sites continue to trade as normal and no redundancies of park staff have been made on appointment. The administrators are in the process of appointing an experienced leisure operator to the company so that it continues trading and to ensure that guests’ holiday expectations are met.  It is the administrators’ current intention to honour all reservations.

Posted at 04:47PM Nov 16, 2010 by Marc Stenton in Insolvency  |  Comments[0]