LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - On the Beach said its sales rose strongly as the online holiday retailer sought to capitalise on the collapse of Thomas Cook.

Reporting on the first four months of its financial year, the company said it had more than doubled its spending on offline marketing while keeping prices low to nab market share in the absence of Thomas Cook.

On the Beach said Thomas Cook's failure had reduced capacity in the market, causing big increases in airline seat prices. Delays to Boeing's 737 Max returning to service have added to the upward pressure on prices, it said.

The company said despite higher prices its move to capture market share had helped drive strong sales growth for summer 2020 departures. On the Beach shares rose 4.7% to 424.19p at 1323 GMT.

Chief executive Simon Cooper said: "The actions we have taken in the first four months of the new financial year have accelerated our market share gain and mean we are well prepared to take advantage of capacity returning into the market. Our incremental investment into offline marketing activity is helping to drive significant growth in awareness of the brand nationally."

Thomas Cook went bust in September, leaving about 600,000 holidaymakers stranded. The collapse of one of Europe's biggest sellers of package holidays left a hole in the market that its former rivals are trying to fill.

On the Beach is rolling out its Classic Package holiday portal for travel agents to catch some of the five million beach holidays booked offline each year. At the end of January more than 2,300 agents had signed up.

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