Simon Palethorpe says Haven holiday-makers have been quick to take to the familiarity of the Spoons brand, as the company enjoys a 20 per cent uptick in Easter resevations. The combination of good weather and Wetherspoons is developing a profitable business Haven for the ambitious holiday park operator.

In an interview with The Sun, the CEO of Haven Holidays has said that he is looking to expand the presence of Wetherspoons pubs throughout the company’s park portfolio. 

Simon Palethorpe caught up with the red-top at Haven Rochester’s new Spoons location, the most recent of five Wetherspoons sites to be opened over the course of the last year in a deal which has marked Haven’s first significant hospitality partnership. 

Buoyed by an Easter surge in year-on-year visitation of just over 20 per cent, Palethorpe said of his customers: “they like brands they know, they like certainty over what they’ll spend and Wetherspoons brings that in spades.” 

Indeed, such has been the visitor response to the presence of Spoons at Haven sites that Palethorpe seemed determined to speed up the pace of new openings throughout the company’s 39 park locations.

“Everybody seeing the results we’ve had would be keen to go a little bit faster,” he said. 

Meanwhile, in addition to an ongoing £10m effort to build a new pool and log flume at its Kent Coast location, Palethorpe suggested that the company was also potentially on the lookout to expand its network of parks yet further.

“I’d definitely love us to have more parks,” he said. “We’re open to discussion on individual parks [and] groups of parks.”