The company was founded by Simon Cooper, who began his career in the
travel industry while attending
university, when he founded a ski holiday company called On the Piste. He geared the business toward groups of students wanting to go on budget-friendly ski holidays to the
French Alps by coach. Meanwhile, in 2004, Cooper started working on a new venture, On the Beach. When
TUI Group's
Thomson Holidays (since renamed TUI UK) purchased On the Piste in 2008, Cooper then directed his full attention to his new platform. In 2007,
private equity investor
Livingbridge acquired a majority stake in the company for £36 million. In 2008, the company relocated to larger premises at Spectrum House on Towers Business Park in
Didsbury,
Manchester to house additional employees. In 2011 On the Beach expanded further by acquiring Resort Taxis out of
administration for £10,000 to assist with transporting holidaymakers in its most popular destinations of
Egypt,
Turkey,
The Balearics,
The Canaries, mainland
Spain,
Greece and
The Algarve. The Resort Taxi arm was later re-branded into On the Beach Transfers in 2012. The company also continued to build on its services by founding On the Beach Beds in 2011. The self-contracted hotel organisation allowed On the Beach to contract directly with
hotels, attempting to secure better rates for their
customers and increase their market advantage. In January 2012, On the Beach launched its 24-hour resort support service, providing customers with points of contact within their resorts at some of their most popular destinations. By the end of 2012, On the Beach had relocated its headquarters to a new 17’500 square foot property in
Cheadle, near
Stockport. In October 2013,
Livingbridge sold a majority stake in the business to Inflexion Equity Partners on the basis of an
enterprise value of £73 million. In January 2015, On the Beach expanded internationally by launching in
Sweden under the
domain name ebeach.se. In September 2015, On the Beach was floated on the
London Stock Exchange, valued at £240 million. In May 2017, On the Beach acquired rival online travel agent Sunshine.co.uk for a total cost of £12 million. In November 2018, On the Beach opened its brand new digital headquarters at the Aeroworks building in Ancoats, Manchester. == Operations ==