Like so many listed businesses at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, On The Beach's share price plummeted.
Falling to a low of down 75% after the reality of the situation first hit the 海角视频's business community, its share price has been on a bumpy ride ever since.
It had actually recovered to its pre-pandemic level in May last year before founder and chief executive Simon Cooper made the "very difficult decision" to stop selling summer holidays temporarily because of the continued Covid-19 concerns around international travel.
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But Mr Cooper, who established the firm as a sister to its parent company Thompson in 2004, has a plan to not only return the Manchester-headquartered business's finances to their former glory, but also to expand and grow like it never has before.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessLive, Mr Cooper has revealed his ideas for the future including doubling the firm's headcount to about 1,000 over the next three to five years, weighing up a string of acquisitions and growing its international reach.
Reacting to the first wave
"Looking back to the start of the pandemic in the 海角视频, it is hard to believe that we didn't realise there was going to be more than one wave", Mr Cooper says.
"It seems a bit obvious now of course but at the time it really didn't.
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"We were all being told that it would be a matter of weeks and everything might well be alright again.
"At the start of course it looked to be a Chinese problem but when we came into February time we started to have conversations internally about what to do if it reached this country and our main markets.
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"I expected the share price to fall because of the industry that we operate in but it rebounded eventually after we reassured investors.
"Our business model doesn't include us owning planes or hotels or anything like that so our overheads are quite small.
"That means we were protected from large costs when the whole holiday industry collapsed."
The impact of home working
So many businesses across the country have already stated that their employees won't be returning to the office full time and instead be offering a more flexible way of working.
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On The Beach is no exception with the tech unicorn, one of only five in Greater Manchester, informing staff that it is to close its Cheadle base and retain only its city centre operation.
Mr Cooper said: "Our contact centre staff have been working really well from home this whole time and we started to realise that we just didn't need to floor space that we had.
"By consolidating our operations to just one centre, we will be able to offer that flexible working that people have come to almost expect because of the pandemic.
"We aren't cutting any jobs as a result of the move and everyone is coming with us.
"The Manchester office is better located for us and a much better facility."
The decision to stop selling summer holidays
Mr Cooper has described the decision, announced in May this year, as a "very difficult" one but one that was right for the business.
At the time he said: "Unlike many of our competitors, we have no interest in selling holidays that are unlikely to happen, as our business model enables us to put customers first, rather than needing to get cash in the door to contribute to high fixed costs, and offering refunds in the form of a voucher when holidays get cancelled."
Speaking to BusinessLive this week, he added: "We already had a lot of bookings that we had to manage and hardly any of them went ahead in the end.
"It just didn't make sense to carry on selling the holidays when there was so much uncertainty about people actually being able to go on them.
"The whole traffic light system was a mess and people were very confused.
"It also saved us reputationally and allowed us to put the customers first.
"It did impact us financially but not as much as it could have done as we already had bookings in place and any of the ones we would have missed out on probably would not have happened anyway."
Funding for the future
By July 2021 Mr Cooper had already turned his attention to the future as the company secured a £26m funding boost, to add to the £65m it raised in May 2020.
He said: "The funding in May last year was to make sure we had a sufficient war chest to stave off any potential legal problems that came down the road.
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"A lot was going on in the industry that was a bit troublesome so we felt that we needed a safety net to all of that.
"By contrast the £26m this year will help us with our growth plans."
Those plans involve taking advantage of the weakened positions some of its competitors find themselves after the impact of the pandemic as well as taking on new staff and expanding internationally.
The long term
Mr Cooper told BusinessLive that he wants to see the company's headcount double over the next three to five years.
"The company has grown from one employee, me, to about 500 since 2004.
"If we continue to grow at the rate we are at the moment and how we plan to, I can easily see us reaching a headcount of between 800 and 1,000 in that time scale."
The CEO also has his eyes set on acquisitions and expanding internationally, moving into space previously occupied by his competitors.
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"The pandemic has severely weakened many of the companies we compete against and of course Thomas Cook disappeared before it hit.
"We want to expand our reach overseas but also make some acquisitions over the coming years as well.
"2022 could well be a bumpy year for OTB as we still don't know how long the traffic light system is going to be in place and how much testing is going to be required but things will continue to improve."