Holiday firm breaks trend

May 17 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

CHESHIRE travel firm Holidaybreak is on the acquisition trail and expects to seal a deal within weeks.

The Northwich company, which reported its interim results yesterday, saw half-year revenue rise 55% to £156m and reported healthy booking levels for its education businesses PGL and NST, which it bought last year.

The firm has seen “extremely robust demand” for London trips, thanks to demand for shows such as Joseph and exhibitions such as Tutankhamun.

The group’s upbeat stance came despite pre-tax losses widening from £6.8m to £15.4m following the impact of the education deals in the seasonally quieter period.

But the group says the results are in line with expectations and it is well-placed to weather the credit crunch storm.

Last week Holidaybreak secured a new £275m debt facility with a syndicate of six banks led by Barclays and RBS. The five-year package replaces a previous £255m facility and chief executive Carl Michel says it will help the group with its expansion plans.

He said: “We’ve always got a fairly healthy pipeline of deals and opportunities coming up.

“I would hope that in the next couple of months we’ll be making at least one acquisition.”

Hotel break sales were 7% ahead of last year during the six months to March 31, with profits rising to £6.8m.

The company also hopes theatre shows such as next year’s production of Oliver! will tempt customers and is confident over prospects.

Mr Carl Michel said he was “delighted” with the progress of the new PGL and NST education businesses, which boast a range of outdoor activity centres and organise school trips for students.

The division is already 94% booked for 2008 and 32% for 2009. Like-for-like sales for the division are 9% above last year.

Although the group’s camping business has also seen strong bookings for the summer season, it warned of a £2m blow to revenues for its adventure travel division after recent turbulence in Kenya and Tibet, as well as the sinking of an Antarctic cruise ship in November.

“These destinations are expected to recover in 2009 and the division is seeing strong bookings for next year,” the firm added.

alistairhoughton