Wyldecrest owner picks up three residential home parks
ASWANSEA caravan park has been snapped up in a multi-million-pound deal. Wyldecrest Parks owner Alfie Best has completed the £6.5m purchase of three new residential home parks.
The 48-year-old self-made multi-millionaire boss has increased the number of sites in his portfolio to 75 by taking over the David Newman Group.
Mr Best said: “We are the biggest residential park home owner in Europe and have been for some time. Now we have our sights set on being the largest and best in the world. There is still quite a long way to go, with some major operators in America, but we are extremely focused and have been on a expansion growth for the past five years.
“It is a very exciting time in the industry, with more and more retired people looking to downsize and release equity in their properties.
“Joining the family of 13,000 residents living on Wyldecrest Parks up and down the UK gives them that opportunity as well as living as a community.”
The latest Wyldecrest acquisition includes the 115-plot Woodland Park Residential Park in Waunarlwydd, Swansea, Glamorgan, valued at £3.6m, the 83-plot Quarry Rock Park in Claverton Down, Bath, at £2.6m and the 17-plot Kingsway Park in Portishead, Bristol, valued at £581,000.
Mr Best added: “It is our aim to have meetings with residents on site over the next six months to discuss any potential improvements. If there are proposals they have, we will work hand-in-hand with them to make these improvements happen in a cost-effective way.
“This will create further jobs to improve the park within the area.
“In our determination to become the world’s best and largest home park operator we are setting the bar of quality standards much higher than it already is.”
Mr Best, who saw his business increase by £100m in a year, left school at 12.
Born in a caravan on the side of the road in Leicestershire, Alfie started his business at just 14 years old and amassed a fortune so huge he was featured on Channel 4 reality show My Big Fat Gypsy Fortune.
Mr Best has also appeared on the reality TV show Absolutely Ascot, although his son Alfie Jr, or Alfie Boy, is the main star, with his dad having a cameo role.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo earlier this year, Mr Best said: “As a gypsy, it carries a lot of stigma – liars, cheats and thieves – but everything we’ve made has a worldwide impact because we are a global company of mobile home parks and we have brought it to the 21st century.”
He added: “I’m no different than what I was 10 or 20 years ago, but I believe it’s up to us to make a difference in life for ourselves or other people.”