The Chris James Interview

We chat with Chris James of Coast and Country Parks, to discuss the park industry, his role, and what he likes to do when not working.

Hi Chris, thank you for taking part in the interview. Can you tell us a bit about your journey into the park industry – what led you to where you are now?

Thank you for inviting me to take part. My parents are from the hospitality industry, meeting as both sets of my grandparents owned hotels in Weston-Super-Mare. They bought their first holiday park in 1988, located in Brean, Somerset, a popular holiday resort destination and famous for its 7-mile stretch of beach. Above the age of 10, I spent every summer involved on the parks, from groundskeeping, maintenance, siting, sales and the development of one of our Cornish parks in between summers at University. Since then, I went to university and enjoyed a successful career in London. During Covid, I was on furlough, and was called back by my parents to help in the business during a busy Summer 2020. That is when I got my first true taste and the vision to get properly involved. I handed in my notice at my London job in September 2020, and haven’t looked back!

Tell me about your role at Coast and Country Parks?

I am a Director at Coast & Country Parks, with a main involvement within the holiday home sales department, but also getting involved in our holiday lettings and engagement with our holiday home owners. I am also involved with the financial reporting of Coast & Country Parks, as well as the future development and forecasting. With around 24 team members, we are a fairly small operation so my role can be varied, meaning no two days are the same.

What do you find the most rewarding aspect of your role?

Firstly, I enjoy the placemaking and ongoing improvements we do at our parks, with our main ethos for our existing, and future parks, being those in need of investment and redevelopment. This can be even something as small as seeing constructive feedback from owners and guests and applying this for the next season. I also take great pride in seeing those team members within Coast & Country joining us, excelling and developing, and seeing that rewarded with promotions and responsibilities. On this, I have also had the pleasure of seeing the whole companies’ efforts recognised with various awards, including the Visit Devon 2023 Gold Award.

Do you have any advice to those starting out in the industry?

My advice would be to go to all the various conferences and exhibitions as possible. The BH&HPA conference, the Innovation Show, Holiday Park Development Forum and the Glamping Show are good examples. Everyone within the industry is also really friendly, and would always be happy for a friendly phone call, coffee, or chat if you had any questions.

What has been your favourite professional moment?

The Winter of 20/21 for me has to be up there. Having recently committed to the business, we had decided to develop several of our parks, primarily Lynmouth Holiday Retreat in Devon and Tamar View Holiday Park in Cornwall. Diversifying into holiday lettings and incorporating new letting units and operations within the parks and the refurbishment of our facilities block at Lynmouth. However, our main focus within Coast & Country is holiday home sales, so alongside those, it was also important to make sure all of our parks had impressive new holiday homes ready for sale. This was all made 10x more difficult with Covid and lockdown and all the pressures that came with them. But come 12th April 2021 when the parks were allowed to open, we had new letting units fully operational across three of our parks, a near-new facilities block in North Devon and a wide selection of new holiday caravans and lodges. We had been speaking to multiple prospective purchasers before we could open, with viewings lined up, so within the first week, we had several sales agreed. The combined effort of everyone within Coast & Country, took us to the next level and set us off to a great start to the 2021 season.

Would you like to share your most embarrassing moment?

Fortunately, with only 3.5 years with the company, there has not been too much time for many howlers! One I will admit to, was during the development of new holiday home sales bases at Lynmouth Holiday Retreat in North Devon, I was on a Rolling Machine, compacting the soil before the grass could be laid. After some heavy rain, the roller found a softer spot and nearly rolled over. Picture to the left, luckily I was okay, just had to go to one of the grounds team with my tail between my legs, so they could rescue the roller with a digger. 

Where do you like to holiday?

I love my holidays abroad, but I religiously spend a lot of time in South Devon, around Noss Mayo, Bigbury-on-sea and Salcombe. With parks in Cornwall, I am often there every couple of weeks, but I only really spend time at the parks, so I haven’t seen much of what Cornwall has to offer. For my 30th, my fiancé and I are taking a 2-week road trip around the Cornwall coast which we are currently planning and looking forward to!

If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing?

Easy answer for me would be my previous career, working in Commercial Real Estate Investment. During my childhood, I always wanted to be racing driver or a detective. 

Outside of work, what are some of your interests or hobbies?

I enjoy keeping fit, with the gym or running. I also enjoy skiing. Otherwise I like catching up with my friends and going for dinners. No extreme or unusual hobbies unfortunately…

Looking ahead do you have any personal and professional goals for the next year?

Personally, my fiancé and I have just bought our first house together. It needs some work and we used to live in a small flat, so that will take some time and effort to become a home. Professionally, 2024 is the year I have to step up and push on with Coast & Country Parks. With my dad becoming Chairman of the BH&HPA, a lot of his time will be dedicated to the association and its members. We have a good team that I work with, so I am confident the steps we have taken in 2023, will lead us into a positive 2024. Rolling off the back of a slower 2023, we have taken positive steps with our digital marketing and winter upgrades to see a progression in our holiday home sales and lettings projections. We also have a self-storage business in Somerset, which is expanding exponentially, so I would like to see that continue to expand, or the acquisition of another site. 

Do you have any role models or people who inspire you?

I would have to say my parents. Having only ever worked for themselves, starting, establishing and growing what is now Coast & Country Parks, I had a great childhood with opportunities available to me. Now, they are great mentors, supporting how I see the business growing. Despite the stresses of owning and operating several businesses together, they will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary next year!

Is there an interesting fact about yourself or achievement people may not know about?

In my previous career, I trained and am still a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. This is where my love of property and development was realised.

Who else would you like to be seen interviewed in this series and why?

James Cox of West Dorset Leisure Holidays and Isabel Marshall of Bentham Golf Club & Wenningdale Escapes have both been friendly faces as I have joined the industry and have a similar background working within a family business. At Coast & Country Parks, we have also formed a partnership with Sunseeker Holiday Homes, working alongside Richard Moore.