Caledonian Leisure Ltd, which comprises established coach holiday specialist Caledonian Travel and hotel breaks operator UKBreakaways.com, was founded by the former senior management team of National Holidays and is backed by a multi-million-pound investment from the Mobeus VCTs, LSE-listed venture capital trusts advised by Gresham House Asset Management that invest in innovative UK growth companies.

Since launching in April 2021, Caledonian Travel has quickly established itself as one of the leading coach holiday operators in the UK after outperforming its first-year business plans.

The company’s first-year performance was driven by the expansion of the Caledonian Travel brand beyond its Scottish heartland into northern England, with new departure points throughout the North East and Yorkshire supported by the opening of travel centres in Glasgow, Middlesbrough and Wakefield, which have proved extremely popular with customers.

Caledonian Travel plans to invest in further strengthening its retail presence in 2022. New travel centres at Gateshead Metro Interchange and Hull Paragon Interchange are due to open soon, and there are plans to open several more throughout the course of the year.

A large multichannel marketing campaign is due to be launched shortly as Caledonian Leisure continues to raise awareness of both Caledonian Travel and UKBreakaways.com to drive sales.

Graham Rogers, managing director, said: “Beating our first-year projections during a challenging climate was very satisfying. We’re eager to build on this success and have ambitious plans to accelerate our growth in 2022.

“Holiday bookings for the coming year have started at a pace and we are already well ahead of our intake budgets, so we’re on course for another highly successful year.

“The key to our success is our ability to deliver exceptional products to our customers at sensational value. We’re continually innovating our breaks across the UK, Ireland and Europe and our experience breaks to family attractions, live sporting events, West End shows and concerts are expanding all the time, meaning there really is something for everyone.”

Caledonian’s first-year performance was capped off by winning a 2022 Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award, designed to recognise businesses that consistently deliver outstanding customer experiences.

Martin Lock, commercial director, added: “The Feefo Platinum Award is testament to our commitment to delivering the very best service possible to each and every customer.

“I’d also like to thank our network of Travel Trade partners who have supported us since day one and have played a key part in our first-year performance. Over the past year we’ve developed many great relationships with Trade partners who understand the UK short breaks market, and have established a model that delivers mutual benefits. Their experience, engagement and knowledge has been pivotal to delivering this award winning experience to our customers, not to mention the hotels, attractions and venues we work closely with.”