Businesses thrive in the nation's forests
Forestry England have a diverse range of recreation businesses operating in the nation's forests. From cafes to ice cream and burger mobile catering, gift shops to bike hire and Segways. Team building activities, external training courses and paintballing to seasonal business such as Christmas tree sales. The variety and quality of the businesses we work with help to make the nation's forests special places to visit.
Explore current opportunities below or get in touch to propose something new.
Current Opportunities:
Deer Control Licence in Central England Forest District Opportunity
Tenders are invited for a three-year Deer Control Licence (DCL) in Central England Forest District. Subject to satisfactory performance the licence may be extended for a further two years. There are two licences available 1 - Wellow and Bevercotes and 2 - Sywell, Hardwick and West Wood.
For more information regarding this opportunity please contact tara.dobson.martin@forestryengland.uk Closing date for submissions 5pm 15 August 2025.
Delamere Forest Concession Opportunity
Forestry England invite expressions of interest and feedback for a future concession opportunity at the Delamere Forest site. Forestry England are currently researching potential commercial uses for the current bike hire building on site. We are seeking interest and feedback from the wider market as to potential appropriate activities/services that would be a cohesive fit with the forestry environment and our visitor profile at the Delamere site.
Forestry England are currently scoping our requirements to ensure that the specification of requirements and future tender documentation accurately reflects the current offerings of the market.
We intend to publish a procurement exercise for this requirement in early Autumn 2025.
We invite companies from the market to register their interest in this future requirement and provide feedback on potential clarification on the feasibility of our emerging plans. Suppliers should register their interest by no later than Thursday 21st August 2025 by emailing Emily Coffin - Commercial.services@forestryengland.uk .
Haldon Forest Park Cafe Concession
Forestry England is seeking expressions of interest from operators wishing to provide a cafe concession at Haldon Forest Park.
The popular visitor attraction https://www.forestryengland.uk/haldon-forest-park hosts over 500,000 visits annually with the cafe serving an important part of the visitor offer. The cafe is a memorable experience for seasonal visitors and a vibrant hub for our community of regular visitors.
The cafe lease area contains approximately 35 indoor covers and 36 outdoor covers, with the potential to house more indoor seating in an adjacent studio. There is further picnic table seating nearby for 100 persons.
Currently we anticipate the lease period being 5 years in duration with extension options of 1 year + 1 year, the lease Heads of Terms will be available in the tender documents which we expect to be published August 2025.
The total value of the lease opportunity over the term is expected to be in the region of £5 million.
We are seeking an operator to commence the lease in March 2026 with the concession opening to the public by the beginning of April 2026.
Expressions of interest should be submitted by 31 July 2025 via email to sam.harris@forestryengland.uk
Expressions of interest are invited for commercial marketing partnerships
We are continually looking for commercial marketing partnerships and sponsorship that meet our marketing objectives.
We have a range of events that can be sponsored and we are happy to talk to companies and organisations about innovative ways to explain who we are and what we do and promote our sites to their customers.
Our objectives are:
- Inform people about our work
- Raise awareness of our sites, events, activities and membership
- Raise awareness of the importance of trees, woods and forests
We have recently worked with companies to promote our forest and activities via their websites and apps. We would be interested in hearing about other similar opportunities.
Expressions of interest in this work can be made at any time by contacting marketing@forestryengland.uk
