Minoan shrinks pre-tax loss
Scotland-based Minoan Group has announced a double-digit increase in operating profit and a reduction in its overall pre-tax loss to £1.18 million for the year to the end of October 2013.
In the previous year the company announced an overall pre-tax loss of £1.35m.
The Group, which owns Stewart Travel, John Semple Travel and King World Travel has since bought in a 20% stake in its Travel & Leisure division and arranged a £5m loan facility to accelerate its acquisition and growth.
Its preliminary results for 2013 show that the total transaction value for the Group rose from £37.4m to £51.2m and its gross profit was up from £3.7m to £5.19m. Pofit from the T& L division was £604,000 before tax, up from £413,000 in 2012.
The company said the T&L performance since the year end continues to improve, with an increase in gross margin and gross profit up by 15% to the end of March.
Its strongest performing areas are cruise and golf.
In a statement, the company said: "This impressive growth reflects a mix of volume growth and the fruits of a conscious strategy to move away from traditional retail business towards higher margin business, thereby generating an overall increase in gross margin.
"In particular, the businesses of Cruise and Golf grew substantially ahead of the market."
Chairman Christopher Egleton added: "Currently we have never been closer to realising management’s ambition of developing the Group into a successful international travel and leisure business after 12 months of outstanding progress.
"Growth at the T&L division is accelerating, with strong double-digit increases in both revenuesand operating profit. The new loan facility will ensure the pace of acquisitions continues to pick up while the buyback of the minority stake in the business ensures that Minoan shareholders will benefit from the full impact of this excellent performance."
He said the Group’s project to build a luxury holiday resort in Crete had received reaffirmations of support from both the Greek government and the local municipality and added: "A final decision is expected shortly that would be the main value crystallisation event for the Project.
"Given this backdrop we look forward to the coming year with every expectation of delivering further significant improvements both operationally and in terms of enhancing shareholder value."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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