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Statement by
Angus Crichton-Miller
Chairman
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September 11th had only a small
impact on 2001 profits and we are confident that 2002 will
prove the resilience of the Group's business and result in
further progress being made.
DIVIDEND
The Board is recommending
a final dividend of 12.6p (2000: 11.2p), payable on 23 April
2002, to shareholders on the register on 22 March 2002, making
a total of 18.0p (2000: 16.0p) for the year. Dividend cover
will be 2.1 times, in line with our policy of maintaining
approximately two times cover.
THE DIVISIONS
2001 proved to be a good
year for our two main Camping Division businesses, Eurocamp
and Keycamp, and an outstanding one for Hotel Breaks.
Our Adventure companies, Explore Worldwide and Regal Diving,
also made pleasing progress.
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Camping Division
operating profits increased once again as did bookings and margins.
The margin improvement was largely due to a continuation of
the trend away from tented accommodation to mobile-homes but
also the success of our marketing campaign in the all-important
UK market which, together with various product improvements,
will also have long term benefits.
Despite the potentially negative
effects of foot and mouth and rail disruption, Hotel Breaks
profits grew by 25% in line with turnover. Superbreak, our
principal brand, is increasingly broadening its distribution
and gaining recognition from consumers, not least because
of the success of our on-line booking facility which now accounts
for more than 10% of total revenues.
Explore Worldwide and Regal have
bedded in well in their first full year as part of the Holidaybreak
Group. Simon Tobin, formerly managing director of Keycamp,
replaced Explore Worldwide founder Travers Cox as divisional
managing director in January and has instigated a series of
measures to improve the marketing and operation of the business.
Like for like turnover was 12% up on the equivalent 2000 figure.
We estimate that Adventure lost approximately £300,000
of revenue as a result of the September 11th attacks, taking
virtually no late bookings for September holidays and also
suffering numbers of last minute cancellations. This, together
with reduced load factors on some of our tours, resulted in
operating profits being reduced by approximately £130,000
compared to the previously anticipated figure.
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