Travelzest buoyed by Canada arm and out of takeover talks

Travelzest has admitted its Canadian divisions boosted the conpany's financial results in 2008 as the economic downturn began to hit other areas of the business.

The company, which acts as an umbrella organisation for brands such as Tapestry Holidays, Captivating Cuba and Best of Morocco, posted a 15% increase in revenues from £38.5 million to £44.3million for the 12 months ending 31 October 2008.

Profits also increased to £5.1 million over the same period from £3.8 million in 2007.

Chief executive Chris Mottershead told Travolution that “having the Canadian parts is a huge benefit to the business”, with online travel retailer itravel2000.com performing well in 2008.

Offloading the in-house operating costs of Holiday Express to the On Holiday Group had also helped wipe the divisions existing losses from the Travelzest bottom line.

Mottershead confirmed that a widely reported deal to sell Travelzest in November 2008 is “old news” but would not rule out a another deal in the future. Travelzest has no plans to come off the London Stock Exchange’s AIM listing.

He also suggested that some travel companies are “signalling a change” with regards to acquisition moves, although Travelzest is currently not in any active talks and is concentrating on “the internal business”.

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