London-listed beach holidays specialist OnTheBeach has bought the “highly complementary” Sunshine.co.uk for £12 million.

The deal will add some 200,000 Sunshine.co.uk customers to On the Beach’s 1.2 million, which On The Beach says will give it additional scale when negotiating exclusively contracted product.

Sunshine has gross assets of £18.6 million and returned an EBITDA of £1.6 million in the thirteen months to the end of September 2016, the latest financials available.

OnTheBeach says the deal will be “earnings enhancing” in the current year.

Simon Cooper, CEO of On the Beach Group, adds:

“We are delighted to have acquired a brand as well established with beach holidaymakers as Sunshine.co.uk.

“This earnings enhancing transaction reflects the board’s ambition to consolidate On the Beach’s leading position in the online beach holiday space while supporting our drive to exclusivity and underpinning our ability to further leverage our scale.”

The company says staff and management team at Sunshine.co.uk, including managing director Chris Clarkson, are part of the deal and will remain in place.

Sunshine.co.uk launched the Boy Voyage cruise booking site in 2011 and acquired the Real Holiday Reports review site in 2014.

The site was launched by Clarkson and Chris Brown after selling their previous site, HolidayWatchdog, to TripAdvisor in 2008.

OnTheBeach claims to have a 20% share of the short-haul beach travel market in the UK.