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Trailfinders founder collects £2m dividend as annual profits rise

Specialist tailor made travel agency Trailfinders saw sales grow 5% in the 12 months to February 2016.

Turnover for the London-based company rose from £584 million to £612 million while pre-tax profits grew from £18.7 million to £19.4 million.

Sole owner and chairman Mike Gooley, a former SAS officer who founded the business in 1970, collected a £2 million dividend after having decided not to pay one the previous year, the Mail on Sunday reported.

The company made charitable donations of £3.5 million to The Mike Gooley Trailfinders Charity, which supports youth-orientated community projects, Armed Forces veterans and medical research.

Further donations of £100,000 and £78,500 were made to victims of the Nepal earthquake and Great Ormond Street Hospital respectively.

Trailfinders runs 31 travel centres in the UK and Ireland and employs 670 travel consultants.

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