Continued strong growth and strategic progress drive record annual results with Total Transaction Value (TTV) up 31% year on year to £942m with Adjusted EBITDA significantly increasing to £33m
Travel Counsellors, the UK’s largest and fast-growing technology platform for travel entrepreneurs, is pleased to announce its Annual Results for the 12 months ended 31 October 2023 (“FY23”) as well as a trading update for the first six months of the new financial year (‘H124’, being the period from November 1st 2023 to 30th April 2024).
FY23 HIGHLIGHTS:
- Total Transaction Value (“TTV”) of £941.6m was 31% higher than the prior year (FY22 – £719.4m) as both Travel Counsellors’ B2C and corporate businesses delivered record results:
o Corporate TTV increased to £215m
o More than 79% of sales made in the premium-leisure focused B2C business
- Revenue increased by 31% to £456.6m (2022 – £347.8m) in line with the increase in TTV
- Adjusted EBITDA1increased significantly (+64%) to £32.8m from £20.1min the prior year
- Continued investments made in building a world-class scalable platform to support the Company’s ambitious long-term growth plans and to better enable travel counsellors to build lasting relationships with customers and scale their businesses.
- Over 300 new travel counsellors welcomed into our community both organically and through the Holidaysplease acquisition, thereby enabling them to leverage the Company’s proprietary digital platform and infrastructure to launch their new travel businesses. This took us to more than 1,923 franchisees at the year-end.
- Ahead of the Company’s 30th birthday in 2024, Travel Counsellors was rebranded to create a new visual identity that reflects the business as well as the care we have for our customers and our people
- Five-star rating on Trust Pilot maintained reflecting the company’s relentless focus on customer care
Outstanding trading momentum and strategic progress continues in H124:
- Strong momentum into the current financial year with TTV increasing 14% in H124 against strong prior year comparatives
- Significant growth in the travel counsellor community with 148 new travel counsellors joining in the first half, representing 23% growth against the prior year and taking us to more than 2,000 franchisees
- Top-selling destinations in H124 included trending ‘experiential’ destinations such as Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka alongside long-standing favourites such as the Middle East, Indian Ocean, USA and Mediterranean as well as cruise holidays.
- In January 2024, the Company further bolstered its proprietary tech stack through the strategic acquisition of the award-winning Planisto technology platform. The integration of the Planisto platform is accelerating Travel Counsellors’ technology development plans and focus on the premium travel market by adding proven market-leading functionality that enables Travel Counsellor business owners to build highly complex travel itineraries and present these intuitively to consumers.
Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors, commented: “FY23 was another record year for Travel Counsellors as we delivered significant profitable growth and strategic progress across the business. This positive outcome is once again a firm demonstration of the strength of our differentiated strategy and was underpinned by the record number of customers who trusted Travel Counsellors with their leisure and corporate travel needs. Our strong momentum has continued into the first six months of the current financial year with strong further double digit TTV growth.
“As always, I would like to acknowledge the hard work, commitment and care shown across the Travel Counsellors community during the year. The dedication and relentless customer focus of our community, which comprises both our own employed support team and our growing network of more than 2,000 Travel Counsellors, in combination with the strengths of our asset-light business model, has enabled the Company to further capitalise on the continued growth in the global travel market.
“I am delighted that despite our transformational growth trajectory in recent years we have maintained our five-star Trustpilot rating. This is a strong testament to our customer-first culture that runs through everything we do as well as the investments we continue to make in our outstanding technology platform that is central to the world-class service delivered by our growing network of travel counsellors.
“I am extremely confident that underpinned by continuous investment in developing our proprietary technology we are exceptionally well placed to further build on our significant growth over the coming years. We are focused on continuing to disrupt the travel market through superb, personalised service and our scalable, relevant, and differentiated business model.”
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