Club Travel revenue growth falls below expectations

Revenue growth at the Club Travel group fell below expectation last year with the hot summer cited as the reason.

Accounts show that higher costs at Club Travel Holdings resulted in pretax profit declining by 14 per cent to €4.08 million.

Revenue increased by 5 per cent from €145.5 million to €152.34 million in the 12 months to the end of October last.

Club Travel director Colman Burke said on Monday that 2018 “was a solid performance, although growth was below expectations, which arose from the good weather in summer 2018, resulting in a large drop in late holiday bookings”.

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“Otherwise, we are happy with 2018 turnover given we are in a highly competitive market segment.”

Club Travel is the Government’s travel agent.

“Like all other businesses, costs and especially employment costs are rising, with pressure from customers on fees, ” Mr Burke said.

The increased costs included a spend on General Data Protection Regulation compliance and Mr Burke said this came to about €100,000 last year and he said “however this was largely a once-off item”.

Numbers employed increased from 194 to 200 with staff costs increasing from €6.93 million to €7.44 million.

The group’s balance sheet remains very strong with cash of €56 million.

At the end of October last, the group had shareholder funds of €54 million that included accumulated profits of €40.6 million. The group paid dividends of €536,152.