On the Beach posts sunny forecast amid luxury acquisition
Online holiday retailer On the Beach has bought a luxury high street travel agents in a move into the offline market, as the firm announced yesterday that profits are in line with expectations.
The £20m acquisition of Classic Collection came amid stable projections for the year ahead, with shares rising more than 15 per cent during trading.
Speaking about the acquisition of Classic Collection yesterday, On the Beach boss Simon Cooper said: “We operate in a market where circa 60 per cent of bookings are made online and we have never addressed a market that books its holiday offline.”
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Analysts are expecting the UK-based travel company to report adjusted pre-tax profit in the range of £33.5m to £34.2m for the 12 months to the end of September later this year.
While rival firms such as TUI Group and Thomas Cook have been hit by the blistering summer heatwave that has kept holidaygoers in the UK, yesterday’s results signal a resilience in On the Beach’s businesses model.
Chief financial officer Paul Meehan said: “Whereas the tour operators, if they don’t sell a holiday, they will have a loss… because they still have to pay the supplier and pay for the aircraft, we don’t have costs incurred if we don’t sell a holiday