On the Beach to up marketing spend to capitalise on Thomas Cook demise
On the Beach said on Tuesday that it was stepping up its marketing investment as it looks to capitalise on the demise of Thomas Cook.
FTSE All-Share
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On The Beach Group
148.40p
15:49 26/04/24
Travel & Leisure
7,582.61
15:50 26/04/24
In an update for the year to 30 September, the online holiday retailer said trading has remained in line with management's revised expectations and that the collapse of Thomas Cook last month had created an "unprecedented opportunity to take additional market share at an increased rate".
As a result, the company has started to strategically increase its marketing investment both online and offline to attract new customers to onthebeach.co.uk, sunshine.co.uk, Classic Collection and Classic Package Holidays.
Chief executive officer Simon Cooper said: "I would like to thank all teams across the business for their exceptional response following the compulsory liquidation of TCG in ensuring that customers were either re-booked or refunded in the shortest possible time whilst maintaining our high quality customer experience standards.
"On the Beach has an exciting opportunity to significantly increase its market share over the short to medium term by leveraging its strong brand and core capabilities."
Shore Capital said: "We expect this increase in marketing to result in a short-term cost for a modest long-term gain.
"The key factors for seeing a return from this marketing strategy include how fast seats can return to the market and the normalisation of seat prices post Thomas Cook."
On the Beach warned in August that it would take a one-off hit from helping customers affected by the Thomas Cook collapse. It did not provide any figures but said at the time that it would book an exceptional cost as it helped customers to organise alternative travel arrangements.
The group said it expected to be able to recover the costs of the cancelled flights via chargeback claim, as was the case for the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017.
At 0940 BST, the shares were up 0.9% at 440.60p.