European holidays company Eurocamp has said 2024 could be the most significant in its 50-year history as it transforms its operations.
The Cheshire-based business is to double its destinations and treble the number of mobile homes, tents and other accommodation it offers.
The expansion comes after newly-filed accounts filed with Companies House have revealed the firm’s turnover increased from £111.7m to £127.6m in the year to 30 September 2023.
Its pre-tax profits also rose from £9.3m to £10.7m over the same period.
On the importance of its current financial year, Eurocamp said: “2024 will represent a transformative year for the Eurocamp brand, perhaps the most significant in its 50-year history with almost all aspects of the commercial, product and operations harmonising and mutualising with the other brands in the wider European Camping Group.
“The consequence of this evolution will be to provide the Eurocamp brand with access to a significantly larger portfolio of products.
“In real terms this more than doubles the number of campsite destinations it is able to offer and trebles the number of mobile homes, tents and other accommodation.”
Eurocamp is owned by European Camping Group which completed the €1bn acquisition of Vacanceselect Group in February 2023.
“Significant improvements”
A statement signed off by the board said: “2023 was the first season where customers from Eurocamp’s main source markets regained their confidence following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Whilst the mix of source markets, the shape of the booking patterns and some aspects of consumer behaviour remain different to pre-Covid seasons, overall the trading performance and pattern of consumer trends has continued t recover and closer resemble ‘normal’ operating conditions with a strong recovery in 2023 from the UK market which remains Eurocamp’s primary market.
“Having successfully pivoted the business to other markets (notably The Netherlands, Germany and France) during 2020 and 2021, the continental markets for 2023 continue to represent a bigger share of the business with only a small shift in share since 2022 where the UK market remained more subdued than others following the emergence of the Omicron strain of Covid-19 in December 2021.
“Despite this shift, overall trading has performed well with significant improvements in revenue and booking numbers during key low season departure dates, with the rest of the season performing more or less in line with expectations.
“In terms of negative external forces, the cost-of-living pressures being felt globally did not appear to deter travellers with family holidays appearing to be prioritised over other discretionary spending.
“The revenue management team were able to successfully pass through cost inflation with prices on average 7.4 per cent higher than 2022 with consumers appearing to offset this increase by reducing the duration of their stay to compensate and stay within budget.
“There was a slight drop in the average stay duration for the season for almost all markets, destinations and stay dates.”