David Urquhart (Travel), the independent touring holiday company, racked up a £335,000 loss last year as its change programme took longer than expected to impact the bottom line.
The East Kilbride-based group, where owner David Urquhart was one of the most prominent supporters of the Yes campaign, saw turnover down only marginally at £21.6m (after restating the previous year's figure to £21.9m) in the year to April 30. But that drop coupled with a modest rise in the cost of sales, from £15.5m to £15.6m, reversed profits of just under £60,000 the previous year and £117,000 in 2012.The financial results include the subsidiaries David Urquhart Transport, which provides vehicles and transport to the tour operating arm, and Hart Hotels whose portfolio includes the Glenmorag in Dunoon, Fife Arms in Braemar, Mackay's at Strathpeffer and the Garve in Wester Ross. Sister operation David Urquhart Sky Travel sells flights and cruises.
Mr Urquhart, who will be 69 this month, offered his first holidays in September 1983. The business now has over 3m customers.
He and the other directors, writing in the accounts, say it was a year of "considerable change" in response to the "operational and financial challenges being faced by our principal trading sectors". They say the financial results were "disappointing but not unexpected" and that controlling shareholder Mr Urquhart is wholly supportive of the change programme. The directors were "investing to minimise the impact" of adjustment to the immediate consumer demands of the company's market.
Shareholder funds were down only slightly at £3.1m, though the overdraft was almost halved to £287,309. Staff numbers eased from 165 to 161.
A year ago, Urquhart said that tightening of consumer spending was requiring a continued focus on the delivery of value for money holidays.
Chairman Mike Dickson said last January that after two very difficult years for the industry in 2012 and 2013, Urquhart had refocused its businesses,
improved its offerings, and "we should see these changes reflected in increased profitability this year".
Mr Dickson commented yesterday that 2014 had been another difficult year for the industry as a whole, but he expected that following the refocusing and the improvement in offerings the changes should now feed through into improved profitability during 2015.
The directors also note risks arising from "changes in the demand for our products and services resulting from any related legislative changes". Directors' remuneration fell from £271,609 to £209,580, while that of the highest paid director rose from £116,256, to £122,383.
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