TUI Travel plc, the London based tour operator that is a major retailer of cruises in the UK and operates five ships on the British market, has reported strong results for its 2013 financial year and looks forward to further good trading in the new year, buoyed mainly by strong British and German markets.
Group pre tax profit before one off items rose to £473 million in 12 months to 30 September from £390 million in the same period a year earlier, while revenues rose to £15.0 billion from £14.5 billion. However, after one off items such as impairment charges, the profit fell to £181 million from £201 million.
"The year has been outstanding and highlights that our strategy of delivering unique holidays sold directly to our customers is the right one. We have once again reported record underlying profits across the business, significantly exceeding the top end of our growth roadmap target of 10%. This follows strong margins across the peak Summer period, particularly in the UK and accelerated business improvement delivery," said Peter J Long, group chief executive officer.
"TUI Travel is structurally well positioned with a robust business model that gives us a long term competitive advantage. The business continues to deliver sustainable growth through our unique holiday experiences, increasingly distributed online, whilst leveraging its scale as one organisation. This in turn, will drive further value for both our customers and shareholders. Building on this year’s outperformance where we have achieved a 13% underlying operating profit growth, I remain confident that we will deliver consistently on our five year annualised growth target of between 7% to 10% at constant currency," Long said in a statement.
In addition to Thomson Cruises, in the UK, TUI Travel owns Quark Expeditions, the expedition cruise line, and Intercruise, the shoreside services provider.