A collection across
two continents
Ventures
From medical staffing to one of the UK's most decorated wine estates a vertical of ventures built on the same founding philosophy: solve a problem nobody else will, and never stop reinvesting.
A24 Group · The founding company
The business that built it all
Founded in 1996 with her mother Marion as Ambition 24hours, the A24 Group is the largest privately-owned medical staffing agency in the UK. By 2002 the company topped the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 Britain's fastest-growing company and remained in the rankings for three consecutive years.
Today the group places over 100,000 hours of healthcare professionals every week across the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. Penny's son Adam serves as Chief Executive, carrying the founding values into a second generation.
The thesis was always simple: be available, be reliable, be human. Healthcare agencies operated nine-to-five; hospitals needed staff at 2am. Ambition 24hours was a manifesto in a name.
Walker Bay · South Africa · Established 2013
Benguela Cove
Lagoon Wine Estate
200 hectares within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. A Cape Floral Kingdom UNESCO site. A wine estate, a winery, a restaurant and a residential development, all on lagoon-front land.
Penny first came to Benguela Cove as a customer. She and Nick were looking for somewhere to launch their boat on the Bot River Lagoon near Hermanus, and fell completely in love with the place. When the original developer died in 2013, Penny stepped in and bought the entire 200-hectare estate. "I called it 'I swallowed the spider to catch the fly,'" she said of the moment a property rescue became a 70-hectare wine estate, a winery, a restaurant, and a full residential development.
The vineyard produces exclusively estate-grown cool-climate wines under cellar master Johann Fourie — described by Tim Atkin MW as among South Africa's finest. The estate holds WWF Conservation Champion status for protecting the Cape Floral Kingdom and the Succulent Karoo, and works with the Cape Leopard Trust via camera traps.
West Sussex · England · Acquired 2017
Leonardslee Lakes
& Gardens
240 acres. Seven lakes. Grade I Listed. The largest UK garden restoration since the Lost Gardens of Heligan — and home to Restaurant Interlude.
Acquired in 2017 after eight years of closure and neglect, Leonardslee was reopened in April 2019 but the gardening world had already taken notice. In June 2018, a full year before the gates reopened, Robin Lane Fox of the Financial Times the world's longest-running gardening columnist visited and wrote about it. That same year Penny and Leonardslee appeared on BBC Two's Gardeners' World.
The estate is home to a famous colony of wallabies, deer roaming the woodland, and working beehives — a living ecosystem that feeds directly into Restaurant Interlude under chef Jean Delport, only the second South African chef to earn a Michelin Star. The restaurant also holds a Michelin Green Star and 4 AA Rosettes, and was named AA Overall UK Restaurant of the Year 2025. Leonardslee House holds a Michelin Key.
West Sussex · England · Acquired 2016
Mannings Heath Golf & Leonardslee Wine Estate
The United Kingdom's first golf and wine estate — created when Penny acquired Mannings Heath from the Exclusive Group in 2016. 750 acres, two championship-grade courses, and 38 acres of sparkling-wine cultivars.
A new category in British luxury hospitality. The first vines were planted at Mannings Heath in 2017 38 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier sparkling cultivars forming one half of the Leonardslee Family Vineyards estate, developed by cellar master Johann Fourie, who works across both the Sussex and South African estates.
Two championship-grade courses meet a working vineyard within a single 750-acre estate, in the heart of the High Weald.
West Sussex · England · Launched 2023
Leonardslee
Family Vineyards
Three estate-grown English sparkling wines including the first English sparkling made with Pinotage. Within eighteen months of launch: No. 56 in the World's Best Vineyards 2025.
In 2023, Leonardslee Family Vineyards launched its first three English sparkling wines — Blanc de Blancs 2020, Brut Reserve 2021, and Brut Rosé 2021 — all estate-grown, traditional method, under cellar master Johann Fourie. The Brut Rosé includes Pinotage: the first English sparkling wine made with Pinotage.
Eighteen months after launch: No. 56 in the World's Best Vineyards 2025 — placed above Moët & Chandon. The wines have been poured at the King's Birthday Parties in Paris and Oslo, at Government trade events in New York, at ProWein Düsseldorf, Brit Pop Paris, and Wine Paris. Press coverage from Decanter, Jancis Robinson, James Suckling, Oz Clarke, Jamie Goode, Sam Caporn MW and Alan Titchmarsh's ITV show.
Seychelles · Indian Ocean
Cerf
Sanctuary
A private island sanctuary within the Sainte Anne Marine National Park — one of the most pristine marine reserves in the Indian Ocean.
Extending Penny's philosophy of properties that exist in profound, active relationship with their natural environments, Cerf Sanctuary brings the same commitment to conservation and exceptional experience that defines every property in the portfolio.