Cancelled bookings because of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a holiday homes giant missing out on a revenue of £100m during its latest financial year, it has been revealed.
Newly-filed documents have confirmed that Sykes Holiday Cottages lost £12.4m worth of sales in the year which would have seen it record a revenue of almost £99m.
However, the Chester-headquartered company's total was £86.4m for the 12 months to September 30, 2021, a rise from the £70.1m it posted for the prior year.
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However, its pre-tax profits surged to a record £30.1m, up from £5.9m.
Sykes Holiday Cottages is backed by Vitruvian Partners which also has takes in the likes of Trustpilot and Travel Counsellors.
During the year the company acquired Best of Suffolk and Abersoch Quality Homes.
The trade and assets of Traditional Lakeland Cottages, Heart of the Lakes, Lake District Lodge Holidays, Printcater and Rock Estates (Cornwall), were also transferred to the business.
Since the end of its financial year, Sykes Holiday Cottages has also acquired Northumbria Coast and Country Cottages, Large Holiday Houses and Lyme Bay Holidays.
The trade and assets of Character Cottage Holidays was also bought in December 2021.
A statement signed off by the board said: "The directors are satisfied with the trading performance and will continue to develop the existing activities of the company.
"The company has continued to see the year being affected by Covid-19, although to a lesser extent than in the previous financial year.
"The learnings from the initial UK lockdown have been applied throughout the period.
"Cost control has been key to ensuring the business is resilient to these lockdown periods.
"Marketing spend was tightly monitored and staff costs were minimised (through furlough were applicable and limited recruitment).
"Further savings in overheads were attained via a strict control over discretionary spend budgets."
