France: Reinvention 2025 - Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs Group Adopts New Strategic Direction

The French Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs Group (P&V-CP Group), which currently unites six brands in tourism and further brands in real estate under one umbrella, announced this past Tuesday the strategic realignment of its corporate strategy in response to a shift in local tourism. “The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the tourism industry and created new customer expectations. Families want modern, authentic, fun, useful, relaxing and instructive holidays, to experience unforgettable moments together, from one generation to another,” says Franck Gervais, CEO of the P&V-CP Group since January 2021.

Under the title “Reinvention 2025”, the group summarizes its new strategy, which is based on three main pillars: a radical, group-wide modernization and “premiumization”, a shift towards 100 percent experience-based, personalized and service-oriented offers, and an ambitious and responsible property development in the service of the customer experience. The company also aims to drive the group’s performance to 275 million euros EBITDA in 2025 and an equally large cash flow generation in 2022-2025. More precisely, this includes that the group will invest a total of 430 million euros over the next five years, 60 percent of which will go to the Center Parcs facilities. Moreover, a massive renovation plan has been drawn up for the Center Parcs holiday parks, under which 715 million euros (90 percent of which will be financed by the institutional partners) will be invested.

The strategic plan aims at positioning the group as a pioneering leader in the field of a sustainable, experience-oriented, modern and value-added local tourism. In the 2019/20 financial year, affected by the Covid-19 crisis, the group’s revenue totaled some 1.3 billion euros. (eap)