Holiday retailer On the Beach forecasts more growth

LONDON (Reuters) - British online holiday retailer On the Beach Group (OTB.L) predicted a more than 20 percent sales increase this year as its internet technology helps pull more customers to its website and it eyes new markets in Norway and Denmark in 2016.

On the Beach, which listed in London in September, specialises in selling holiday packages of flights, transfers and accommodation, which it buys from third parties such as hoteliers and budget airlines, to people in Britain, and more recently Sweden, through its website.

The company believes it will continue to grow at its current rate as more people go on beach holidays and as it steals market share from larger operators such as TUI Group (TUIT.L), the world's largest tourism group, Thomas Cook (TCG.L) and Jet2 Holidays (DTG.L).

"(We're expecting) growth in line with the last three (years) - sales growth in the mid-20 percent level," said Chief Executive Simon Cooper, who in 2004 founded the company in a terraced house in northern England.

On the Beach's technology will help it win new customers, Cooper added in an interview. "We're very efficient at driving traffic share to site through the tools that we've built internally. We're very good at converting the traffic once we get it onto our site," he said.

For the year ended Sept. 30, On the Beach on Wednesday reported a 47 percent rise in adjusted underlying pretax profit to 14.5 million pounds.

Shares in On the Beach climbed 13 percent to 190 pence in midday trading, giving it a market capitalisation of about 280 million pounds, and reversing a downward trend since early November.

Travel stocks have in general traded lower over recent weeks, due to concerns over security risks following the militant attacks in Paris and Britain's halting of flights to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"We have seen no impact at all on top line or revenue in the last two to three weeks since the horrible events in Paris," he said.

TUI will report annual results on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by David Holmes)