A leading online travel agency in the UK, which in November made the move away from Hays Travel Independence Group to become fully independent, has announced that its finance director has been made a shareholder of the company following huge financial success year on year.
Online travel agency www.sunshine.co.uk has released its latest financial results and has announced that the company’s finance director has taken up shares in the business.Zoe Stewart (pictured here) was appointed as sunshine.co.uk’s finance director in November 2011, following her departure from Hays Travel in her role as the independence group financial controller.Since joining sunshine.co.uk, Zoe has contributed to the re-focusing of the company, providing a level of financial and commercial business sense. One of the earliest tasks in her role was to strengthen the business financially; something which has proven to be a success when looking at the latest financial results.In strengthening the business financially, Zoe was able to manage the process of obtaining sunshine.co.uk’s ABTA and ATOL licences; the ultimate goal of which was to become an independent agent, which happened in November 2013. The online travel agency has gone from strength to strength, with sales last year topping £34 million and pre-tax profits hitting £1 million when looking at August 2012 to August 2013. In the current trading year so far to December 31st, passenger numbers have increased by 68 per cent.