lakelandtoday.co.uk

HOLIDAY park operator John Morphet is hitting the international takeover trail again with an £8.6 million luxury Spanish development.

His Yealand Redmayne-based group has bought the 140 acre Marbella Gun and Country Club for £1.6 million.
More than 100 luxury pine lodges are to be built on the site with work, estimated to cost £7 million, starting in May.
"This is a very exciting development for our business," said Mr Morphet, managing director of South Lakeland Caravans.
"When we came across the Gun and Country Club we recognised that it had tremendous potential."

The move follows his US$100 million takeover of the Royal Westmoreland golf resort for the seriously wealthy on the west coast of Barbados.

Marbella has been bought by Mediterranean Leisure Estates, which Mr Morphet co-owns with South Lakeland chief executive Graham Hodgson and which handles the group's European operations. The Gun and Country Club is set in stunning countryside in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nievas. It boasts a range of sporting facilities including clay pigeon shooting, quad biking and archery.

The latest acquisition is however not the end of the story.
Mr Morphet and South Lakeland are also on the look out for other acquisitions to help meet growing demand.
Mr Morphet is one of the leading players in luxury holiday pa-rk sector of UK leisure market. Since 1988, he has built a £31 million annual turnover business with 14 pine lodge and caravan parks in Lake District, on Morecambe Bay and in North Wales.