The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
‘I lived in a caravan – now I’m in a mansion’
Mobile home park entrepreneur Alfie Best tells John Wright about his runaway success
Alfie Best, 53, is a businessman who in 2001 founded Wyldecrest Parks, which has become the largest residential mobile home park operator in the UK and Europe, with 119 residential and 10 holiday parks. According to the Sunday Times Rich
List, he is worth £745m. Alfie divides his time between a Surrey country estate, which he bought 12 years ago for £6m, and a Knightsbridge townhouse.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST HOME?
I’m a gypsy so I was born in a caravan – a very small tin Eccles touring caravan, in Lutterworth, Leics. We used it to travel around the UK during the 1970s.
WHAT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION IN THAT CARAVAN?
I was a baby and didn’t know. The most valuable possession you’ve got is your parents or your children. We were living hand to mouth. We had two coursing dogs and what we hunted and killed, we ate. I didn’t know we were poor. I had a fantastic mother and father and thought they were wealthy.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM CARAVAN TO GRAND HOUSE?
When you come from a caravan, you’re slowly climbing the ladder to a better property. Then you don’t ever see the difference until you get up one day and think, “How lucky I am”.
I pinch myself every day, when I get problems and stresses, and think I’m blessed to have them. Since then, it was a journey of fear that you never want to go back to where you came from. Yet what you have today, you can lose today.
THE FIRST HOUSE YOU BOUGHT?
In 1988, I bought a house in Cheshunt, Herts. The house was £120,000 and I bought it with a £100,000 mortgage.
HOW MANY PLACES HAVE YOU LIVED IN?
Eleven: two mobile homes, four static mobile homes and five houses. I was in that first caravan until I was eight. Then my mum and dad bought a static caravan – a big mobile home – and I lived with them in that until I was 18.
The second house I bought was much grander, Maypole Manor in Romford, Essex. I bought it for £500,000 in 1989 with a £250,000 mortgage. I nearly lost it during the recession in 1990 but sold it in 2006 for just shy of £1m. I then bought a small bungalow, gained planning permission and sold it and bought my very first mobile home park, where I moved back into a mobile home, which I loved.
YOUR FAVOURITE ROOM NOW?
My study. It’s where I tend to spend most of my time working. I love my work and do 16 to 18-hour days. It’s where I’m surrounded by small things and trinkets I’ve collected over the years that tell me about my journey.
There’s a picture on the wall of bare trees and I look at it and sometimes get some inspiration where some people can’t see the wood for the trees.
GO ON…
We’re going to see some good opportunities but also some carnage, because I think this is going to be the worst recession we’ve seen. The pace of UK businesses going into administration and liquidation has risen by 22pc. I nearly went under in 1990, very badly. None of us should rest on our laurels.
DO YOU GARDEN?
I do sometimes, I love it. Normally I do the flower borders, the grass-cutting on the ride-on mower. I tend to maintain what was there originally. There are trees, shrubs, manicured lawn, a fountain, fairly large pond, lots of wildlife: we’ve got foxes, badgers, the whole thing, because behind our house is a 60-acre wood. We’ve also got a Zen garden, which was done like that when we bought it where you’re meant to go down and relax – very tranquil.
HOW BIG IS THE PROPERTY?
There’s about six acres with the 11,000 sq ft house, a 4,000 sq ft garage and a cottage at the bottom of the garden. I used to have a few vehicles in the garage but I’ve sold most of them, except for one that’s going up for sale shortly, the six-wheel Mercedes G-Wagon. There are only 110 of them in the world and it’s worth £1m.
HAVE YOU ADAPTED YOUR HOUSE OR GARDEN TO HELP BUSINESS?
No. I generally work from home but do most of my meetings at the office, in East Thurrock, Essex. We do have a helipad so the helicopter can fly in and land if we’re doing things like photoshoots. It’s kept at an airfield, but if I’m picking up people it costs. So I’ll have them picked up from the house or from another farm I’ve got. I have a number of helipads around the country that belong to the company. It’s whatever is more cost-effective. I have a pilot’s licence but I’ve never flown without a pilot for safety reasons.
HOW DOES HMRC VIEW YOUR HELICOPTER?
They say I’m using it for private use. I say, “Are you joking me? Hold on, we’ve got 120 sites around the country”. It’s bonkers how some of these people think. I mean, how would I get around 120 parks? I find the Revenue is not business-motivated and are actually chasing good entrepreneurs out of the country.
HAVE YOU DONE ALTERATIONS TO YOUR HOUSE?
No, we didn’t need to. It was the perfect house for what we needed. It has fantastic kerb appeal and all the amenities you would want for a small country estate. It even has a separate tradesman’s entrance.