First Choice: 'We have exited the mainstream Spanish market'

First Choice says it has struck gold by moving away from the mainstream package market, enabling it to post positive results for the year. The operator has posted a 20% increase in profits before tax to £87 million for the year to October 2003. Profit after tax was £32.2 million for the year to October 2003, up from £26.1 million the previous year. Chief executive, Peter Long said: “We have exited the retail market and main stream Spanish travel market – we didn’t see growth in those areas.” Despite the positive outlook for this year, First Choice said summer 2004 bookings are 20% behind last year, but Mr Long said he wasn’t “uncomfortable”. He said: “We have seen a shift in booking pattern to booking later, not last minute, but later. “We have seen the impact of early promotional offers, and the impact felt by one of our competitors of giving them away. Don’t try to induce customers to book because all you are going to do is get small incremental volume and undersell what you could sell later. “We are going to revert back to historically what the booking period was, which is Jan to March.” Mr Long also said that the business was aiming at getting 30% of its business online, but didn’t put a time frame on it. A further announcement is that chairman Ian Clubb will be replaced by former chief executive of BAA, Sir Michael Hodgkinson. The results come ahead of the release of MyTravel’s financial results on Thursday, which are expected to be less than positive. Shares in First Choice were up 0.75 pence to 137.75 pence Tuesday morning following the announcement.