14 January 2010

Travelzest moves into black

Specialist holiday operator group Travelzest has moved into profit last year following a period of restructuring.

The financial turnaround was aided by a continued strong performance from the group’s Canadian operations

Figures for the year to October 2009 show a profit after tax of almost £720,000 following a loss of £4.9 million the previous 12 months.

The total transaction value increased by six per cent to £189.5 million.

The underlying operating profit margin increased from 11.6% to 14.3%, the company said.

The company brought in £5.7 million in new funding during the year to strenghen the balance sheet.

Chairman Mark Molyneux said: "Whilst the past year has been the most difficult in our company’s history, we are cautiously optimistic about our markets for the next 12 months.

"We are seeing promising economic indicators from Canada and very early signs of the same in the UK.

"The late booking market continues to be important to us and with the new marketing initiatives under development, we remain hopeful for the coming financial year."

CEO Jonathan Carroll said: "2009 was a restructuring and re-energising year which brought together the strengths and people in the Travelzest group of companies to work as a team.

"We have great belief in our brands and great confidence in our new management team and operational structure, which together provide the foundation for our future performance.

"We would like to thank our shareholders, employees and supporters for their belief in our restructuring plan and strategies.

"We are cautiously optimistic that 2010 will show improvement from 2009 reflecting our dedication to build shareholder value."

He added: "The UK economy seems to be on a slightly slower recovery than the Canadian market, and we continue to see pressure on the pound with destination currencies like the euro.

"As such, we continue to look at alternative markets in which to promote our tour operating product, while continuing to monitor the UK market closely for signs of consumer leisure travel growth."

by Phil Davies

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Your Comments (1)

Great

Great to see travel companies turning around after the great challenges we've had in the industry over the past few years. Interesting to see Jonathan Carroll wading into this "turning around" discussion. Wasn't he the leader in the .com companies offering discounts of up to 12% and forcing all tour operators to having to come up with the new 8% policy that hurt just about every travel agencies in Canada? HMMMM, interesting!!

By Fred DeHaas, Friday, January 15, 2010