On the Beach (business)

On the Beach
Public
Traded as LSE: OTB
Industry Travel
Founded 2004
Founder Simon Cooper
Headquarters Cheadle, Greater Manchester, UK
Area served
 United Kingdom
Products
Services Travel Agency
Website www.onthebeach.co.uk

On the Beach is a UK-based travel retailer specialising in short and medium haul holidays to Europe. Holidays are sold primarily via its website https://www.onthebeach.co.uk and they service over one million customers a year.[1]

History

Founder and CEO of On the Beach, Simon Cooper, began his career in the travel industry while attending university, when he founded a ski holiday company called On the Piste.[2] He geared the business toward groups of students wanting to go on budget-friendly ski holidays to the French Alps via coach. Cooper operated On the Piste from 1995 to 2008. Meanwhile, in 2004, Cooper started working on a new venture, On the Beach. When Thomson’s purchased On the Piste in 2008, Cooper then directed his full attention to his new platform[2]

In 2007, private equity investor Livingbridge acquired a majority stake in the company for £36 million.[2]

In 2008, the company relocated to larger premises at Spectrum House on Towers Business Park in Didsbury, Manchester to house additional employees.[3]

In 2011 On the Beach expanded further by acquiring Resort Taxis out of administration for £10,000[2] to assist with transporting holidaymakers in its most popular destinations of Egypt, Turkey, The Balearics, The Canaries, mainland Spain, Greece and The Algarve. The Resort Taxi arm was later re-branded into On the Beach Transfers in 2012.[3] The company also continued to build on its services by founding On the Beach Beds in 2011. The self-contracted hotel organisation allowed On the Beach to contract directly with hotels, attempting to secure better rates for their customers and increase their market advantage.[4]

In January 2012, On the Beach launched its 24-hour resort support service, providing customers with points of contact within their resorts at some of their most popular destinations.[5] By the end of 2012, On the Beach had relocated its headquarters to a new 17’500 square foot property in Cheadle, near Stockport.[7]

In October 2013, Livingbridge sold a majority stake in the business to Inflexion Equity Partners on the basis of an enterprise value of £73 million. On the Beach used this investment to expand its offering of ancillary holiday products such as travel insurance and resort transfers, increase online and television advertising, grow its direct contracting system and develop and optimise its technology platform across multiple devices.[2]

In January 2015 On the Beach expanded internationally by launching in Sweden under the domain name ebeach.se.[6] In September 2015, On the Beach was floated on the London Stock Exchange, valued at £240m. 52 million shares were made available at 184p per share. The company is listed under stock code OTB.[7]

Headquarters

On the Beach is headquartered in Park Square, Cheadle, Stockport, Greater Manchester[8]

Awards

On the Beach has received the following awards:

Marketing

On 26 December 2013, On the Beach aired their first television advert. The ‘Totally Beachin Holidays’ campaign, was filmed in Corralejo, Fuerteventura and was broadcast across the Midlands region on ITV and Channel 4.[18]

In December 2015 the company launched their second television advert. The advert was produced by creative agency Cheetham Bell and again ran with the tagline of ‘Totally Beachin’ Holidays’.

References

  1. ↑ "On the Beach - Case study". Hubert Gawronski - UX & Product Designer. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  2. 1 2 3 "Story so far". www.onthebeachgroupplc.com. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  3. ↑ "On The Beach Transfers - About Us". www.onthebeachtransfers.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  4. ↑ "Jobs with On the Beach".
  5. ↑ "On the Beach to offer in-resort support". 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  6. ↑ "On the Beach reveals international expansion plans". www.travelmole.com. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  7. ↑ "On the Beach Pricing of Initial Public Offering - RNS - London Stock Exchange". www.londonstockexchange.com. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  8. ↑ "About Us | Leading Online Travel Agency | On the Beach". www.onthebeach.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  9. ↑ "Award Winners 2014 | GP Bullhound Northern Tech Awards". northerntechawards.com. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  10. ↑ "Travolution Awards 2016". www.travolutionawards.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  11. 1 2 "Travolution Awards 2016". www.travolutionawards.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  12. ↑ "Agent Achievement Awards 2015: Winners revealed". 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  13. ↑ Begum, Shelina (2015-11-13). "MEN Business of the Year Awards 2015: Region's top firms are honoured". men. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  14. ↑ "The Top 50 agents of 2016". TTG Media | Travel industry, travel agent and tourism news, events and jobs. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  15. ↑ "Success at News UK’s annual Travel Awards | News UK". www.news.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  16. ↑ "Travolution Awards 2016". www.travolutionawards.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  17. ↑ "Best Online Travel Agency UK - who won the TTG Award 2016?". Beach Holiday Blog | On the Beach. 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  18. ↑ "On the Beach to launch first TV ad campaign". 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
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