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Bourne Leisure owners take £97m in dividends

The owners of Butlin’s, Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels are reported to have taken more than £97 million in dividends since the start of last year.

Bourne Leisure, which is owned by three secretive families, reported profits of £155 million in the year to December 31 – up from £143.9 million in the previous year.

The performance came as sales rose by 3.9% to £1 billion, according to The Sunday Times.

Bourne Leisure’s Peter Harris, John Cook and David Allen, took ownership of the UK tourism businesses when they bought the Rank Organisation’s holiday division in 2000.

Harris, 84, worth an estimated £800 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, spent £420,000 on advertising for Vote Leave before the EU referendum.

He was later criticised after Bourne Leisure recruited cheap staff from Poland, according to the newspaper.

Bourne Leisure is the UK’s biggest leisure company, employing almost 14,000 people at peak periods.

More than four million families take holidays at its resorts and hotels each year, including its three Butlin’s sites in Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness.

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