Holidaybreak confident despite recession
TRAVEL business Holidaybreak has recorded a dip in profits but insists it is well-placed to weather the recession.
The Northwich-based group, which has its Hotels Breaks business in York and which owns a range of businesses covering education travel, adventure, hotels and camping, is recommending a final dividend of 7.9p.
It said the education travel brand PGL and its camping arm, which includes Eurocamp, were both doing well with revenue up 12% and 11% respectively.
Hotel breaks and adventure travel both felt the impact of the recession with sales falling 6% in hotels. Income from adventure travel rose by 3.4% but bookings for 2009-10 are 12% down.
During the year to September 30 the group saw revenue rise 4% to £473.4m. Holidaybreak gave a headline pre-tax profit figure of £28.4m, down 13%, which stripped out £23m of additional costs relating to the impairment of goodwill, restructuring and fair value losses on interest rate derivatives.
After taking these figures into account the group was left with a pre-tax profit of £5.4m, down 77%.
Executive chairman John Coleman, said: “Despite the current economic environment, we are encouraged by recent trading patterns.
“We have strong brands with market leading positions across different travel segments operating in various European markets.
“These factors give us confidence that we are well placed when the economy emerges from the downturn. We continue to look at ways of exploiting opportunities for investment and acquisitive growth in our education businesses.
“However, we will continue to manage the entire business tightly, with a focus on cash generation and cost control.”
The group, which raised £33m in a rights issue in July, said it is still looking for a replacement for its former chief executive Carl Michel who left in September.
