“Mixed result” for Jetset Travelworld Limited.
Jetset Travelworld has just released its results for the year to 30 Jun, with a $5.5m after tax profit, down 72% on the previous corresponding period.
Outgoing ceo Peter Lacaze said it had been a “challenging year which experienced reduced average selling prices for international air product, exchange rate volatility and industrial action affecting the Australian national carrier, Qantas”.
He said the group had generated TTV of $5.63 billion, which was down about 3% on the prior year on a consolidated pro forma basis.
Revenue decreased 6% to $361.1m, but expenses were also down 5% reflecting the benefit of merger cost synergies, and adjusted EBITDAI was down 8% to $50.5m “with a significant factor in the full year performance being the losses incurred in the Travel Management segment”.
Retail performance
Retail TTV rose 5% to $4 billion and the revenue margin also increased slightly (by 0.07 percentage points) which the company said was due to benefits of scale and an increase in the volume of preferred product sold through its retail networks.
Franchisee, member and affiliate numbers remained stable, and the wholly owned Best Flights operation saw an 11% increase in international online bookings during the year.
Wholesale
On the wholesale side, TTV rose 30% to $858.1 million, reflecting the integration of the Harvey’s Choice Holidays business. The revenue margin fell from 15.7% to 13.4% largely due to reduced selling prices and the highly competitive market.
The company also confirmed that the expansion of its ReadyRooms.com.au online accommodation business to offer a wholesale component (as exclusively revealed by Travel Daily) had been conducted in partnership with Orbitz, and had been “enthusiastically embraced” by the agency network.
Travel management
The QBT segment incurred a loss of $3.3 million, despite TTV increasing 14% to $744.4 million for the year. As previously announced, the company confirmed that QBT’s headcount would reduce by approximately 65 positions or 20% of the QBT workforce by the end of 2012.
Lacaze steps down, Gurney takes over
Lacaze steps down as a director of the company today, but will continue as an employee for a one month transition period ending 30 Sep 2012. He has been determined as a “good leaver” and his stake in the company, amounting to more than 10 million shares, has been released from escrow.
Chairman Tom Dery thanked Lacaze for his leadership, while the new CEO Rob Gurney has commenced his employment with the company effective from today.
“The board has asked Rob to work with the management team to formulate a long-term strategy for the group,” Dery said.
More information in tomorrow’s Travel Daily.
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