One of the North West's largest holiday companies has revealed plans to create up to 200 jobs by the end of 2022 after its revenue and profits surged to record levels.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessLive, Sykes Holiday Cottages' chief executive Graham Donoghue also confirmed talks are ongoing to acquire more businesses alongside his plans to grow the group organically.
The Chester-headquartered group, which is marking its 30th year in business in 2021, currently has 1,000 employees and operates 21,500 properties - 19,500 of which are in the 海角视频.
READ MORE: JD Sports hits back at rules break claims after covert filming of Footasylum meeting
In July the group reported a turnover of £70.1m for the 12 months to September 30, 2020, up from the £68.9m it achieved during the prior year.
In accounts filed with Companies House at the time, Sykes Cottages revealed that without the pandemic, its turnover would have been more than £77m.
The documents also showed the group's pre-tax profits went from £6.6m to £5.9m over the same period.
"It's been the most successful year in the company's history", the CEO said.
Most Read
"Despite all of the challenges, the staycation demand was quite significant in terms of the whole summer period for 2020/21 which has led to record revenue and record profitability.
"People are still a little bit nervous about committing long term for summer next year so short term demand is doing incredibly well.
"Spring and summer volume demand is a little bit down on what we would like but we think the year as a whole will be more of a late market, with people leaving making decisions until closer to the time.
"We are still very confident in terms of what we saw in 2021 continuing into 2022.
"The whole industry, from a staycation and alternative accommodation point of view, is booming.
"People have clearly fallen back in love with travelling across the 海角视频 but there is still an element of nervousness but the good growth that we have seen will continue into next year.
"We are seeing record numbers of people wanting to rent a property from us.
Don’t miss
"I think it's all really quite positive for the sector."
Don't miss a thing - sign up for your free North West newsletter - and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
For all the latest stories, views, polls and more - and the news as it breaks - .
Mr Donoghue's comments come after the group was backed by Vitruvian Partners in October 2019 in a deal which provided an exit for Livingbridge.
He added: "Because of our growth we now have a larger fund supporting us and backing our growth and they are making all the capital available that we need.
"We have made a few acquisitions recently and there are more in the pipeline.
"We are actively in exclusivity talks to buy more businesses and we will continue that.
"We will also grow organically and all of the investment needed to do that is being made available."
Latest Cheshire Business News
On increasing the number of staff at the group, the CEO said the headcount is expected to rise by about 15% to 20% in the next 12 months, leading to between 150 and 200 new jobs.
He said: "We will be a bigger business by this time next year, so we will have more properties and more people working for us.
"This year we will be taking somewhere in the region of 2.6 million and 2.8 million people on holiday.
"We will also have made a significant impact in setting a new purpose for the business around our social footprint.
"We're currently going through the accreditation process to become a Bcorp."