25th Nov 2015 07:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - Thomas Cook Group PLC on Wednesday said current trading is encouraging, as it report a swing to a profit in its recently-ended financial year, with strong demand for some of its holidays offsetting disruption caused by the terrorist attack in Tunisia in June.
The travel company said it made a pretax profit in the year ended September 30 of GBP50 million, having suffered a GBP114 million pretax loss the year before. Revenue fell to GBP7.83 billion from GBP8.58 billion, although it grew on a like-for-like basis.
Thomas Cook said demand for holidays to own-brand hotels and other new products increased, despite disruption to the business from the terrorist attack on a beach in Tunisia in which 38 holidaymakers died.
Thomas Cook added that it has had an encouraging start to the new year with strong winter trading in the UK and northern Europe. The winter season is 58% sold so far, one percentage point ahead of this time last year, while summer 2016 is currently 23% sold in the UK, which is five points higher than this time last year.
"The new financial year has got off to a good start with encouraging trading overall for Winter 2015/16 and Summer 2016. With our business on a firmer financial footing, we have a clear strategy in place to deliver greater value for customers and sustainable growth for our shareholders," Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser said in a statement.
Thomas Cook will pay a dividend in early financial 2017 based on its profit for the full year.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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