THE founder of Barrhead Travel, Bill Munro, has underlined the company's desire to open more stores in England in coming months as the business looks to maintain dramatic growth in sales.
The privately-owned firm increased revenues by 21 per cent in 2014, to a fresh record of £240 million, up from £197m in the preceding year.
Mr Munro said while accounts have to be finalised the company is in line to grow profits by around £400,000 to £500,000 on the preceding year.
He said much of the growth in sales was due to the success of the company's move to increase its presence in shopping areas by opening more travel stores.
The company opened six new shops in 2014, including one at Braehead shopping centre. Its web site lists 30 stores in Scotland and one in England, in Cumbria.
Mr Munro said Barrhead Travel is preparing to open a fifth store in Edinburgh and is eyeing three more sites in the city.
Barrhead Travel plans to open a store in Glasgow's St Enoch Centre in April. This will major on selling flights.
However, he said Barrhead Travel may reach a point where it has a critical mass of shops in Scotland, beyond which it will be hard to expand.
"We are very much looking towards England," said Mr Munro, who started the business with a shop in Barrhead in 1975.
Barrhead Travel is majority-owned by Mr Munro's daughter Sharon, who is chief executive. Mr Munro retains a shareholding.
He added: " We think expansion in England is where we will have to be in five, ten years time."
Mr Munro said the company will focus on northern England, where there is more "commonality" with its central Scotland heartland.
He noted that many people who live in Scotland fly on holiday from Newcastle and Manchester airports. By opening shops in such areas it may be easier for the company to win the business of such travellers.
Mr Munro said the company is looking at one or two sites in the Newcastle area.
Asked if it might open a store in the north east city this year, he said: "I think it's likely."
Mr Munro said the company anticipates achieving further growth in the current year.
Revenues in the year to date are up around four per cent on the same period last year.
He noted Barrhead has been winning more flight business after striking deals to sell seats for a growing range of airlines. The company formed a partnership with Turkish Airlines in 2013, under which the firms offer bespoke travel packages and exclusive rates.
Based on current trends, the company expects the most popular destinations for travellers from Scotland this year will be Marrakech, Borneo, Istanbul, Alaska and Malta.
Mr Munro said the company expects the St Enoch Centre store will allow it to win a bigger share of the market to provide flights to long haul destinations in areas like South America and Australasia.
He noted that the company's cruise holiday operation has been performing well.
Mr Munro said the prospect of the General Election in May made it hard to forecast how the travel market will perform this year. However, he noted that survey data indicated consumers were cautiously optimistic and were likely to travel more and spend more.
Barrhead Travel made £1.8m pre tax profit in 2013, up from £1.6m in the preceding year.
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