Profile: Leisure boss John Morphet

Morphet, 55, is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs. He sold his South Lakeland Caravans business to a private equity buyer for £100m and, in addition to Royal Westmoreland, he now owns Pure Leisure Group, which has golf resorts and caravan parks in the the UK. Last year, Pure Leisure Group made profits of around £5m and Royal Westmoreland around £6m. Morphet travels regularly around the UK to visit the sites and to his estate in Barbados.

Are all the celebrities as nice to deal with?

Most of them have become good friends.The whole England cricket team came once and they were all impeccably mannered. I can’t speak highly enough of them. When I first took over [former England cricket captain] Mike Gatting, who has a property there, came up to me and said he had some issues and wasn’t happy with the way some of the estate was run. I sorted it out. That’s why I came in, because it needed some sorting out.

[Former Wimbledon champion] Virginia Wade, who is another owner, doesn’t like me because I call a spade a spade and that’s how it is. We have rules that are for everyone. But I think I’ve made my peace with her now.

Any other amusing ancedotes?

Michael Vaughan was at our house one night and one of the members of the wealth management company that looks after him had bought a watch in Barbados – a very nice Breitling watch which cost about £4,000 – but he daren’t take it home and tell his wife he’d bought it. So I had to bring it home. Michael Vaughan was messing about with it and put it on his wrist and said ‘let’s see how long it is before this guy realises’. For ages he didn’t realise and just thought Michael had bought exactly the same watch as him. After 12 months, this guy was still telling his wife that I’d given him the watch.

How do you fly to Barbados?

I like Virgin Atlantic – I’ve done 52 trips in five years. I use British Airways occasionally but I think the staff on Virgin are more friendly. On Virgin, I only go Upper Class if I can cadge an upgrade, usually I go premium economy. It’s an eight hour flight which goes so quickly and Upper Class is a total waste of money. The difference in cost is a lot and I can’t justify it, so I don’t do it.

Do you work on a flight?

I tend to have all good intentions to work on a flight, but it never happens and I’ve given it up now. You get a drink, then another drink, something to eat, have a doze, watch a film and it’s all over. I love the old films, but I’ll watch anything because I just like to be entertained. I like biographies and I’ve read lots of those, for example Richard Branson’s and even David Beckham’s, although I was given that one. Other than that, I’ll read The Times every day because it does some great offers, the local weekly papers and the farmers’ journals.

What about music?

I’m a 1960s and 1970s person, but I’ll listen to anything. I’ll tell you what I’ve got on my iPod right now – there’s The Beatles, Neil Diamond, The Beautiful South, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, T Rex, Cliff Richard, David Bowie – you name it, I’ve got a total cross section.

Do you arrive early or late at airports?

I turn up on time. But my partner is a nightmare, so it’s difficult if I’m travelling with her as she’ll always be late.

Do you travel light or heavy?

If I go to Barbados, I’ve just got hand luggage. I’ve got everything I need in my home in Barbados.

Any hairy moments on flights?

I used to have a little resort in Spain and went there on a Monarch flight. We were half an hour out of Spain and we went through turbulence and dropped about 500 feet. People went as green as grass, but that’s about all that’s happened.

What annoys you about flying?

The only irritation is when you get stopped with hand luggage. I’ve travelled with the same piece of hand luggage for five years and it’s quite large, to be truthful, and I’ve been stopped twice, both with British Airways, when they wouldn’t let me on with the bag. That meant getting back into a long queue, checking it in and taking my personal stuff out. Apart from that, I don’t really have any problems on flights. If a flight is delayed, I can switch off for hours, close down and make time disappear.

How do you get around the UK?

I’m based in Cumbria and go to Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire once a week and Bridlington once a fortnight. I’m very fortunate that I don’t get traffic jams because I travel by helicopter. The furthest place I go is about an hour away.

Any scary moments in the helicopter?

Not really. We do fly in all weathers because we’ve got a good helicopter that can cope with that. My pilot is a professional pilot and he won’t take risks. Once we were near home and it was foggy, so we couldn’t see the ground. The pilot took us back to Blackpool and we drove from there. I wouldn’t like to fly myself with some of the muck that we fly through; I’d rather leave it to the professionals. Also, if I’m in a helicopter it gives me the opportunity to do some work.

Do you ever travel by car?

Sometimes I do and I’ve got an S-class Mercedes. I have to go down to Cambridge and I call it the Cambridge Riviera because it doesn’t rain nearly as much as it does up north. I’m an early bird, so if I’m driving to Cambridge, it’ll take about three and a half hours and I’ll get there by 9am to beat the traffic.

Do you stay in UK hotels?

Most of the time I’ll travel there and back in a day, but if I’m going to Lincolnshire, I’ll stop over in a hotel. I like to be fed and pampered a little bit. I stay just outside Tattershall or near the Wash in Cambridgeshire. I haven’t really got any favourite hotels because I don’t stay there a lot. My ideal place is a nice old world pub, with a crackling log fire and some decent bar food.