Online holiday firm battles terrorism fears to hit £70m revenue

LISTED online holiday company On The Beach Group has grown its revenue despite “challenging trading conditions”, including fears over terrorist attacks, the failure of Low Cost Travel Group and weakening sterling.

Turnover grew 12% to £70m in the year to September 30 (2015: £62.5m).

The Cheadle, Greater Manchester-based company said it have leveraged its bespoke bid management capability to drive efficiency resulting in revenue, after marketing costs, increasing by 18% to £36m (15: £30.4m).

The group has also continued to grow market share, with daily unique visitors to site increasing 13% to 61m (2015: 54.4m).

It said that despite consumer concern over terrorism and the collapse Low Cost Travel and plummeting sterling demand for beach holidays had “remained resilient.”

Chief executive Simon Cooper said: “FY16 has been an extraordinary and unprecedented year for the travel industry.

“Amidst these difficult conditions, the group’s solid revenue and profit performance is testament to the strength and flexibility of our agile business model and this has enabled us to deliver a year of highly profitable growth.

“In spite of the challenges faced, the Group has continued to grow market share and this has been delivered by executing a simple strategy of optimising our customer proposition to increase conversion and improve margin.
 
“The successful execution of this strategy provides further evidence of our ability to steal market share from traditional tour operators.”

The group will announce its audited preliminary results on December 6.