The Travel/Holiday industry as had mixed fortunes over the last few years. Gone are the days when family and freinds just enter a travel agents and pick a holiday from out of a brochure.

More disposable income and the availabilty of relatively cheap credit as meant people looking for holidays further afield and also holidays of a differing nature like hobby holidays and active participation holidays. People also tend to book there holidays online now and seek out direct contact with the airlines and hotels/ appartments, insurance etc, and cut out the middleman ie, the travel agent. Its cheaper and its also more flexible for the people booking the holiday.

This is where Travelzest comes to the fore and the company is building an empire to take on the needs of the varying requirements and demands of the enlightened customer.

The company have just reported very good results for the year end to October..

Travelzest plc
Preliminary results for the year to 31 October 2006


Travelzest plc, the British online travel group offering specialist travel
programmes, is pleased to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31
October 2006.


Financial highlights

Total transaction value increased 261% to 44.1 million (2005: 12.2 million)

Turnover increased 70% to 19.2 million (2005: 11.3 million)

Profit before tax and goodwill amortisation increased 1,066% to 863, 000
(2005: 74,000)

Profit before tax increased 597% to 404,000 (2005: 58,000)

Normalised diluted earnings per share (adding back goodwill amortisation)
increased 290% to 4.25 pence (2005: 1.09 pence)

Gross profit percentage increased to 37.8% from 26% in 2005

And the chairman had this to say about the changing face of the holiday industry..

The travel market has changed significantly in the last five years providing
exciting new opportunities for growth.


The catalyst for this change is the internet.


Travellers are increasingly happy to buy flights and accommodation directly from
suppliers via the internet, especially where they are familiar with the
destination. As travellers become more adventurous, stimulated by the internet,
they are seeking more specialist and niche holiday experiences. These
experiences might be, for example, travelling further afield or engaging in a
particular interest or hobby whilst on holiday or demanding a higher level of
service support.


These specialist markets have traditionally been serviced by smaller,
independent travel companies. To be successful in these markets, the companies
need a genuine and deep understanding of the holiday experiences they sell and
be able to promote themselves effectively via the internet.


These smaller companies are often under-capitalised and unable to take advantage
of the burgeoning opportunities in their market place. In addition, smaller
independents often lack the ambition and financial resources to grow beyond a
certain size and profitability. They may also lack access to an effective online
distribution channel. As a result, they cannot gain the efficiencies of scale
which being a large business or a member of a bigger organisation can provide.


Travelzest has a simple strategy to capitalise on the changes taking place in
the travel market.


We aim to build a group of companies offering specialist travel and holiday
experiences where the internet provides an efficient means of communicating and
transacting with customers. By providing management expertise, financial
investment, cross-selling opportunities and group buying discounts, we will
enable these businesses to be more successful and profitable than if they were
independent.


We believe in a small head office which determines strategy, provides resource,
sets objectives but leaves local management motivated to run their businesses.


We also believe in balancing our portfolio by having businesses which make
profit at different times of the year. This avoids the problem which faces so
many travel businesses of having all their profits and cash flow dependent upon
just a few months' performance.

The company have been very busy putting this new empire together...

Operational highlights


Acquisition of iTravel2000.com in October 2006, Canada's largest pure online
travel retailer, providing counter-seasonal revenues to the predominantly
summer based revenues of Travelzest's businesses in Europe

Acquisition of three specialist UK travel companies: Best of Morocco
(November 2005), Peng Travel (May 2006) and Fair's Fare (June 2006). All have
made a positive contribution to the Group's results for the year

Launched Faraway Holidays, a long haul tour operator, as a start-up
in August 2006

Strong organic profit growth achieved in the Group's founding business,
VFB Holidays

Colin McKinlay, formerly Chief Financial Officer for Thomas Cook UK
& Ireland, appointed as Group Finance Director in April 2006


Post period end events

Tapestry Travel Limited acquired in December 2006 and relaunched as
The Tapestry Collection, specialising in programmes to Turkey and Crete

Wow House Limited acquired in December 2006, offering an exclusive
portfolio of large, prestigious houses to rent for short breaks in the UK

Holiday.co.uk and flight.co.uk websites to be relaunched imminently
with enhanced content and functionality

Mark Molyneux, a former Managing Partner of Ernst & Young in the UK,
succeeded Mike Bruce-Mitford as Chairman in December 2006

Nishma Robb, Group Distribution Director, joined the Board in December 2006,
highlighting the importance of the Group's online distribution strategy


FUNDIES

First of all the company reported cash of just under 11 million in the balance sheet at the end of the reporting period.

Broker forecasts are for EPS of 9p a P/E of 16.2 and a PEG of 0.1 to the 31st of Oct 2007, with EPS of 11.7p and a P/E of 12.4 and a PEG of 0.4 to the end of Oct 2008.

Price to Book Ratio 3.2

I expect Broker estimates to be upgraded in the very near future.

The Outlook Statement

Outlook


Our ambition for the year to 31 October 2006 was to acquire and start businesses
that had the potential to grow quickly under our ownership and complemented our
strategy. I am pleased that we have done this successfully.


In the coming year, we will focus on developing each of the businesses in the
Travelzest Group. We will also consider further acquisitions which broaden the
range of holidays offered to our customers. We look forward to the coming year
with confidence.

TA



DYOR.

regards GF.

Historical item on the company from new issues...

Travelzest - Long Term Buy

Background - Two years ago, VFB Group, a 35 year old holiday package operator, listed on OFEX claiming to provide specialist tours and packages in France, ones that were 'imaginative and varied'. And two years ago, the business was making solid profits, bringing in turnover of just over 10 million. Between 2003 and 2004 as part of a general slowdown in the travel industry as well as - perhaps - some internal complacence, VFB moved into loss. But the business still had potential to deliver. Now, with a recently announced reverse takeover, placing and a possible move to AIM, Travelzest as it is now called, is ready to announce its progress to the market.

Operations - VFB in its original form was incorporated by Michael Bruce-Mitford and his wife in 1974. The group pioneered the concept of 'gite' holidays in Britain. Travelzest mainly markets its package holidays to the over 30s age group and uses newspaper adverts to attract its customers. It has won many awards for its concept holidays and in the year to October 2004 served 24,000 customers, had contracts running with 350 cottages and 150 hotels in France. The business uses a limited number of third party selling agents and therefore saves on commissions. Over 70% of VFB's customers are either repeat bookings or come from personal recommendations and as a result of its impressive performance, VFB won the '2nd best' tour operator award in 2004. VFB's sales are weighted towards the second half and therefore turnover at the interim stage is as little as a million pounds.

Performance over the last two years has not been at its best as the operator weathered difficult trading conditions with the impact of the SARS virus and the aftermath of 9/11. Also, with 35 years of hard work behind him, Director Bruce-Mitford was showing signs of slowing down. The business remained cash generative, stable and ready for growth and therefore, a wise decision was made with the recruitment of heavy hitter Chris Mottershead. Having turned around two of the largest operators in Britain, Mottershead shifted his focus towards VFB, with the intention of positioning it as an travel aggregator and growing it through acquisition.

A few months after his arrival, Mottershead spotted Holiday Express Group and initiated a reverse takeover. Holiday Express differs slightly from VFB/Travelzest as it operates mainly online and sells its packages through domain names like holiday.co.uk, flight.co.uk and discountholidays.co.uk. The business was established in 1983, First Choice bought a 49% stake in the business in 1998 and in 2001 acquired full control. The owners bought back the business in July 2001. The supply of holiday packages to tour agencies is dominated by the four big operators, First Choice being one of them. Holiday Express earns nearly 60% of its commission from holidays booked through these tour operators. The business runs a neutral website without giving preference to any of the four. In the year to September 2004, the business turned in 22.4 million in sales and 512,00 in pre-tax profits.

Business Development - As it stands, VFB is looking to raise 5.5 million through the issue of 4.36 million shares at 126p (the issue price) and it trades today at around 162p. VFB is paying 2.1 million for the business in cash and shares, an attractive price at just over four times Holiday Express' earnings. The acquisition will ensure that VFB's award winning packages can now be marketed through Travel Zest. The group as a whole is aiming to grow through acquisition.

Management - Chris Mottershead has taken over as Chief Executive and has served as head of TUI where he steered the company through the most difficult period and managed to bring in record profits. Prior to this he was President and CEO of North American Leisure Group. Mike Bruce-Mitford, Chairman, founded VFB Group and was Chairman of the Association of Independent Tour Operators. The two non-exec directors include Richard Hall and Peter Thomson.

Investment Conclusion - Travelzest is a much smaller operation than some of the larger tour organisers and it does not enjoy the same economies of scale. However as a small niche operator that is building a buy and build growth strategy, the company should be able to grow earnings much faster if it can buy new businesses at the right price. For the current year, VFB should bring in a tiny profit and Holiday Express should perform in line with last year's numbers. But brokers are estimating that post tax earnings could touch 560,000 in the year to October 2006 and 720,000 in 2007 and on a market cap of just over 10 million, the stock trades on a forward PE of 17 falling to 13. We suggest buying into this long term growth story

Just found this from Growth Company investor..

Travelzest - STRONG BUY
Companies: TVZ
02/02/2007

Travelzest, the specialist travel business led by industry visionary Chris Mottershead, delivered dramatic earnings growth in a year of four acquisitions and senior board appointments.

Driven by acquisitions, finals to October comfortably beat forecasts, with chief executive Mottershead announcing 1,066% growth in normalised pre-tax profits to 863,000, ahead of the 840,000 estimate from house broker Investec. Turnover took off by 70% to 19.2m, well above the 17.9m number in the market. Earnings of 4.25p soared 20% above forecasts and the gross margin grew from 26% to 37.8%.

Acquisitions included three niche UK travel companies Best of Morocco, Peng Travel and Fairs Fare with each contributing positively to the results. Original business VFB, which sells cottage holidays in France, performed well, whilst Holiday Express is about to launch new holiday.co.uk and flight.co.uk websites that allow customers to dynamically package up holidays.

Right before the year-end, Travelzest completed a fourth acquisition, iTravel2000.com, Canadas biggest pure online travel retailer and a higher margin business. The deal has brought counter-seasonal revenues to the predominantly summer based revenues of the European businesses, and Mottershead is also looking to drive bags of organic growth through the site by introducing dynamic packaging as well as web links to the tour operations, where there is huge potential for cross selling.

The travel industry has undergone major recent upheaval, but Mottershead has astutely honed in on the two big growth drivers, niche tour operations and online distribution, and given growth rates and the likelihood of further acquisitions, earnings upgrades are highly likely. For 2007, expect pre-tax profits of 3.6m from 36m sales, and earnings of 9p. The forward multiple of 16 times is way too low, and the shares trade at bargain levels.

James Crux
Market cap: 21.3m
PE Forecast: 16
Share price: 145p

Nice One GF - a great starting point for me thanks - a good day toaday (+5), already showing a plus of 14% for me, and no science to it on my part yet. I remember looing at VFB a long time ago and remember the cottage holiday side. Very dynamic imho and should deliver exciting growth over next year.

AM, well done Ill have a look, many thanks.

GF.

Well a pretty good day for starters up 5p on the day.

Well done AM.

GF, there is a newer update from GCI as well ;)

Cheers PP Ill have a look.

Cant find it PP do you have a link please?.

Blimey just seen the SP up nearlly 9% this morning, going great guns.

Slightly historical article..

Travelzest still on the hunt
Date: Monday 30 Jan 2006

LONDON (ShareCast) - UK travel firm Travelzest is still hunting for new acquisitions, the group admitted today, as it reassured trading remains in line with expectations.

Chairman Mike Bruce-Mitford said, The directors expect to make further acquisitions during the year and have identified a number of potential targets that fit the group's strict acquisition criteria. Current trading is in line with expectations.

The group, which only floated in October last year, reported a pre tax profit for the year to October of 58,000 compared with a loss of 14,000 a year ago. Turnover slipped slightly to 11.1m from 11.4m.

During the period the group appointed a raft of industry veterans such as former MD of TUI UK Chris Mottershead as chief executive, while the CFO of Thomas Cook UK Colin McKinlay is joining as finance director from 1 April.

Another corker of a day and way undervalued for an empire builder like this with top management.

I got in on these when the results came out.... bought in at 145p, this is cheap in my opinion..... lets see what happens tomorrow....

Yep hoping for another up day, fingers crossed.

A solid start to the day.

Just looking on Digital look the concensus broker view is for predicted EPS growth of 111% to the end of Oct 2007.

Thats certainly some growth.

Certainly solid GF - up 10 already.

Yup its motoring.

New note out from Broker Eddison

Feb 05

2007 Mouthwatering

Travelzest is making quick work of marrying online distribution with high-margin specialist tour operations. In little more than a year a clutch of niche travel programmes has been assembled while development of the Groups popular holiday portals now offers exciting prospects for customer conversion and cross-selling. In the meantime initial full-year financial targets have been met and senior management hired. So far, so good is the Edison opinion.
Research type: Company Comment - Full year results

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/research/category/Travelzest

Moved up after lunch and doing very well on a fairly miserable day.

Lets hope for another slam-dunk day, +10% today

Travelzest V Peer group fundamentals

First Choice
to 31/10/2008, P/E 15 PEG 1.3 EPS Growth 12%

My Travel
to 30/10/2008, P/E 11.5 PEG 1.1 EPS Growth 10%

Holiday Break
to 30/9/2008, P/E 14.7 PEG 1.7 EPS Growth 8%

Travelzest
to 31/10/2008 P/E 13.9 PEG 0.2 EPS Growth 30%
(Broker Figures expected to be upgraded)

Conclusion

Travelzest appears to be very cheap relatively on nearly all counts compared to its peer group. I believe the company to be very cheap on its present rating.

A good positive day again today.

I think a doubling of its SP in the next 18 months is easily on the cards. Check out the comparison on growth to its peers above.