New owners outline plans for future as Wild Planet Trust's Paignton and Newquay zoos are sold

The deal took around 10 weeks to complete.

For Stephen Kings, trustees of Wild Planet Trust and the staff at Paignton and Newquay zoos it must have felt like a lifetime and, make no bones about it, time was running out for one of the Bay’s and UK’s most cherished attractions and conservation organisations.

Stephen is hesitant to say how close it was, but having to close the doors on the entire Wild Planet Trust and implement an unthinkable Plan B to find new homes for all the animals must have been just a couple of months away.

Enter Dirk Lips, boss of Libema, one of the biggest leisure companies in Holland and experts at running zoos, theme parks, holiday parks and events venues, along with a takeover plan to plough £10million into not just saving the zoo but transforming it for the 21st century - and that investment is just for starters.

For Stephen and the trustees it wasn’t a case of grabbing the deal with both hands out of desperation, the partnership with Libema was simply the perfect fit as they value conservation and botanics as highly as Wild Planet.

The  turnaround for the sale of both Paignton and Newquay zoos was breathtaking, less than three months. That is not unusual for Libema because they are a family affair.

Dirk has been married to Karin for 40 years and with their daughter and two sons alongside, decision-making is not a long drawn out process.

Dirk and Karin sat in the boardroom at Paignton Zoo alongside Serena Van Kammen, their  head of theme parks and zoos, as the deal was finally done. Dirk revealed how the Paignton partnership began.

He said: “We were looking to go abroad and we have been to Italy, France, Belgium and Greece looking for zoos. They did not want to sell or the prices were ridiculous.”

Contact was made with the Wild Planet Trust just 10 weeks ago. Serena was asked to give her verdict and Libema asked to invest in both Paignton and Newquay zoos. There was no going back. It was as simple as that.

Dirk says: “As a family, we do everything together. It was a click. It feels good.  My wife and  the family decide. We can make decisions quickly whether to invest or not to invest.

“We have been together for 40 years. If she says I do it I feel good and I do it with my management team. We have an open and  honest relationship.

“We are in a good commercial position, therefore that’s good as a family. We went through it with the management team and we had a deal.”

Libema’s design team moved in just eight weeks ago to look at how a new zoo would look.

What will be preliminary work and improvements should be completed in 2026/ 2027. A new Central Square will guide visitors to five new ‘themed’ areas.

“The landscaping is already amazing. It is beautiful. It is almost already there,” says Dirk.

Serena Van Kammen says: “When we saw the zoo for the first time, we could see there was a need for love and attention. Everybody was very excited.”

Karin Lips said simply: “I love the zoo.”

£10 million will be invested over the next two or three years. Further development may come in the distant future. Luxury accommodation including a hotel and lodges feature in some of Libema’s other parks. Leisure and accommodation is their USP.

But Dirk says: “Getting the zoo sorted out is our first priority.”

He emphasised the importance of having the community on side.

Dirk said: “We have good relationships with the local community and we always work with local contractors and try to buy locally. We need to be at the heart of the local community. We need the local community.”

Stephen Kings said in a video interview: “The latest situation is very exciting.”

He added: “A whole series of events have happened over the last four or five years which has led to the situation that the Trust simply did not have the financial capability of investing in the zoos.

Covid was the critical event that happened.

“To survive we had to take a £3million loan from the government. It has been very very difficult as we have had to repay that loan. There is still some of that loan outstanding.

“Unfortunately, that has taken away money that would have been invested within the zoos.

“There have been other issues as well. We had avian flu, the cost of living crisis and so on but I suppose fundamentally Covid created the situation where the Trust simply does not have the funds to invest what is necessary for the zoos.”

He added: “The animals are already very well looked after and that will be as ever. There will be continuity alongside investment. It is everything we have looked for in terms of an organisation to take over the zoos.”

Dirk Lips said: “We have the experience, we have the knowledge and we have of course the resources to bring both zoos into a new future. Libema is a family business and has a long-term vision in leisure.

“We have over 25 locations, Libema is one of the largest nature concerns in the Netherlands. The locations are divided in three divisions - zoos, theme parks, one division, holiday parks and hotels, second, and venues and events in the third division -  and within these three divisions Libema is involved in developing, financing, operating and managing all these recreational businesses.

“We have nearly 40 years of experience in the world of zoos. We currently own four zoos. Safari park Beekse Bergen in the Netherlands is the biggest zoo in the Netherlands almost, with 1.5 million visitors a year — and also the other three zoos are successful businesses.

“We have a great passion for nature. We participate with our zoos in over 120 breeding programme for endangered species.

“We focus on education and research and all these aspects are important for the future for Paignton Zoo and Newquay Zoo.”

He added: “Both zoos have a long and impressive history.  The zoos are in a touristic region, they have employees that are very highly skilled.

“There is a good relation with the local community, residents and municipality. We trust we can bring Paignton Zoo up to 450,000 visitors a year and Newquay up to 150,000.

“Both zoos have good opportunities and we believe in it and we are going to invest in it. We have an improvement vision with 36 plans for Paignton Zoo and a similar plan for Newquay Zoo - and more importantly,  we are financially fit to execute these plans in the next two years and of course in the years after.”

The new areas will be a tropical forest area,  a grassland area, a water area and a mountain area.

Dirk said: “We are going to re-introduce the rhinos. We are co-ordinating in Europe the programme, the breeding programme for the rhinos therefore we believe we can bring ,them to Paignton Zoo.

“We are making a new African savannah. Savannah is of course the giraffes but we will add the zebras, the wildebeests and the antelopes and the other species. Then we are going to move the baboons to a new enclosure that will be very exciting for the baboons in the first place and for the visitors too.

"We are making a presentation with tapirs and capybaras and in the tropical and arid trail we will introduce new species into these enclosures. And in the crocodile samp we will introduce Komodo dragons, they are very spectacular. And we will make a new viewing point for the big cats and a lot of other things.”

Libema will keep urging the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. The Wild Planet Trust will continue its important conservation work both locally and overseas under the guidance of the trustees. You can  see why Stephen Kings calls it the perfect fit.

Welcome to Torbay, Dirk and your family.