The Hotel and Extreme Academy Ltd
Winner Best Family Business
Turnover Category £1-5m Southern England and Wales Region

The Hotel and Extreme Academy Ltd, has been named Best UK Family Business, Southern England and Wales Region, in the £1-5m turnover category of the Coutts Prize for Family Business 2007/8. The company will now go on to compete in the £1-5M category at the national finals to be held in central London on Thursday 5 June 2008.

The hospitality business in Watergate Bay, Cornwall has been in operation since 1967. Often described as a ‘ski resort on a beach’, the Hotel and Extreme Academy is a beach lifestyle destination, offering sports equipment for hire, sports tuition, equipment retail and accommodation. Since 2000, the turnover of the business has increased from £1.1m to £5m and the number of employees has increased from 10 to 95.

David Harvey, Regional Chairman of the Evaluation Committee commented:
“As a successful second generation hospitality business in Watergate Bay, Cornwall, the things that impressed the evaluation committee about The Hotel & Extreme Academy Ltd included:

• The strong financial and operational performance of the business over the past 10 years following a radical transformation of the direction and focus of the business and the creation of new revenue streams;
• The family’s innovative and entrepreneurial approach to succession, which saw the management of the business pass smoothly from the first to the second generation.
• Their active use of independent advisors and non-executive directors to offer input and objective advice and to help manage differences within the family; and
• The family’s strategic approach to philanthropic activities, specifically their instrumental role in helping to develop the Jamie Oliver inspired Fifteen Cornwall restaurant, a social enterprise project which helps disadvantaged young Cornish people become top chefs. The family have supported the project both logistically and strategically from the outset and play an active part as Directors and Trustees of this Cornwall project, as well as providing significant financial support.”