Company History

The growth of a dynamic conference business

Cotswold Conference Centre was launched in January 2001 by the entrepreneur Jørgen Philip-Sørensen. The meeting and training business had its origins 40 years previously in a residential training school for Group 4 Total Security on Farncombe Estate. In the beginning, Group 4 security guards would attend Head Office training courses and stay in dormitory-style accommodation.

By the 1980s, Group 4 was running open courses for UK and overseas delegates in all aspects of security, safety and fire prevention. This then developed into management training for blue chip organisations, using the 370 acre estate and local countryside. As the company’s reputation grew, so did turnover and investment in facilities. In its final year of trading, Group 4 Securitas Training Ltd turned over some £10m.

In 2000, Group 4 merged with Falck A/S from Denmark, then with Securicor, to create one of the largest security organisations in the world. Now known as G4S, the new group decided to focus on core activities and it was then decided by the Group 4 founder and G4S President Emeritus Jørgen Philip-Sørensen CBE to launch the superb facilities as a commercial training venue.

The much-loved boss, “JPS”, sadly passed away in January 2010, but the Philip-Sørensen family retains control of Farncombe Estate and has invested heavily in the refurbishment and building of additional bedrooms. Cotswold Conference Centre is a dynamic and important part of Sorven Holdings Ltd.

We welcome organisations from all over Britain and abroad to our stunning hillside setting overlooking the Vale of Evesham. Companies like Balfour Beatty, West Midlands Police and Allied Bakeries meet and train at our purpose-built training and conference rooms. We are an active member of Conference Centres of Excellence, a marketing consortium of some of the finest independent meeting venues in England, and of the IACC (International Association of Conference Centres), the global home of approved conference centres.