Minoan Group has had to take a one-off hit of £150,000 as a result of a ‘major change’ to its business model.
This was prompted by changes by the Civil Aviation Authority to the settlement system for Minoan’s travel business plus the rebranding, re-organisation and rationalisation of the Scottish company’s travel branch network.
Minoan also incurred costs of £104,000 arising from discontinued branch and operations in Canada.
In a trading update today, Minoan said gross travel revenues for the year to October 31 are expected to hit £45 million with operating profits from continuing travel businesses of more than £600,000.
Audited figures for the 12 months are due to be released in March 2014.
“Minoan expects the strong performance of the reorganised and rebranded travel business to improve significantly. This will be reflected in the operating profits in the current financial year,” the company said.
“It is anticipated that the Group’s consolidated results for the year ended 31 October 2013 will be in line with market expectations.”
Minoan added that plans to develop a resort in Crete are progressing with a revised strategic environmental assessment (SEA) due to be submitted to Greek authorities before the end of the year.
Group chairman Christopher Egleton said: “Profits from the continuing operations of the travel business reflect a robust performance and take into account the recent deliberate slowing of the group’s acquisition drive to ensure new travel agencies were properly integrated.
“We expect a further significant improvement in the performance of the travel business going forward, given the completion of the rationalisation of the business and the arrangement of the loan facility as announced on 17 October 2013, which allows the acquisition programme to accelerate.
“With the travel business performing well and the submission of the SEA now imminent, the group can start to implement the next phase of its strategy to capitalise on the positive developments for its business in both Greece and in the UK.”