First Choice, the Crawley-based holiday company, unveiled record profits as it reaped the benefits of a three year restructuring programme.

The company said pre-tax profits for the year to October 31 came in at £68.9 million, compared with £46.9 million for the same period last year.

Peter Long, chief executive, said it had been a year of "achievement and change" for First Choice.

He said the next target for the company was to transform itself into a European leisure travel group and set itself aside from the consolidation elsewhere within the European travel industry.

"We have a clear vision to differentiate ourselves from our competitors through specialisation, providing lifestyle holidays for our customers."

The group, which is the fourth biggest tour operator in the UK, said its aim over the next three years was to achieve 50 per cent of its profits through the specialist holiday sector.

That ambition has been fuelled by the acquisition in June of the Ten Tour Group and the travel division of First Choice's long-time trading partner Barcelo Group.

Ten Tour, which was bought for £77 million, operates mainly in France, Germany and Spain but also flies to Turkey and North Africa.

First Choice's presence in southern Europe was boosted by the purchase of Barcelo's travel division, a privately owned Spanish travel group.

Mr Long said: "Both acquisitions fit our strategy for growth and differentiation."

Despite being linked to a number of deals, First Choice has so far been a spectator to the consolidation involving UK and German companies.

Mr Long added: "We have not participated in this mass market consolidation and have clearly set out our strategy to differentiate ourselves from our traditional main competitors."

The company announced a total dividend of 3.9p, up on last year's 3.6p.