The trade-only tour operator reported a pre-tax profit of £3.5m for the nine months to the end of March 2015, compared with £2.4m for the year to the end of June 2014, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
Travel 2 Ltd’s reporting period has been shortened and changed to bring it in line with the rest of the companies within the Emirates Group.
Turnover in the period rose by 1.1% to £77.6m.
In their review of the business the directors, which are listed as Andy Botterill and Jens Penny, said there were a number of reasons behind the improvement in profitability.
These included “continued growth in demand for mid and long-haul holidays”, “an improvement in the level of sales and marketing contributions received from our suppliers”, “cost control and cost efficiency” and “investment in the development of our people”.
In September last year, Travel 2, along with other companies in Stella Travel such as The Global Travel Group and bed bank Triton Rooms, were bought by Emirates Groupowned dnata.
“The company is now part of a major international airline and travel group and this is already opening up many revenue enhancing opportunities for the company along with significant economies of scale not previously afforded to the company,” the directors said.
Meanwhile, The Global Travel Group Ltd, which encompasses Triton Rooms and Sunmaster as well as the consortium, made an operating loss of £1.4m in the nine months to the end of March 2015, compared with a loss of £1.8m in the year to June 30, 2014.
The directors attributed this largely to the performance of subsidiary Sunmaster Ltd, which saw a “huge increase” in the cost of acquiring customers online through Google, they said.
“However, despite the increase in marketing costs, the sales volume generated by Sunmaster remained broadly in line with last year,” they added.
The Global Travel Group consortium and Triton Rooms “performed broadly in line with expectations”.
Overall, the entire Stella group of companies saw operating profit rise from £4.6m to £5.7m.
