CIMA MCS Pre-seen: Wuudbreak (November 2026 and February 2027)

Wuudbreak at a glance

• Industry: domestic holiday parks (leisure and tourism).
• Home country and currency: Norrland, N$, reporting under IFRS.
• Product: short activity breaks of three nights (Friday to Monday) or four nights (Monday to Friday).
• Parks: nine, all in forests with a lake. The first opened in 1993.
• Accommodation: Premium, Standard and Value apartments, from studios up to four bedrooms.
• Other income: activities, park supermarkets, and rent and charges from franchised food court restaurants.
• Customers: mainly Norrlandian families and other domestic guests.
• Performance: 94% occupancy, and 71% of guests have stayed before.
• Leadership: CEO Heba Ali Galal, Finance Director Renana Bartal, Non-Executive Chair Enamul Aziz.
• Main named competitor: Vannpark, which runs 11 coastal caravan parks.

Your role

You are a financial manager at Wuudbreak's head office, working mainly on management accounting. You report to Adam Chee, the Senior Financial Manager, who reports to the Finance Director. Expect to write for colleagues and directors: practical, business-focused advice rather than textbook theory.

The industry

Norrlanders spend heavily on holidays, and families take the most breaks. Older families average 6.3 holidays a year. Most people take a foreign beach holiday and spend their other breaks at home. Norrland's mild climate draws few overseas tourists, so domestic demand matters most.

Wuudbreak competes with several kinds of break, not one like-for-like rival:

• Foreign beach holidays, which offer warm weather.
• City breaks, popular with adults and easy to reach by train.
• Caravan parks, which are cheaper and often self-catering.
• Adult-only hotels, including fully inclusive spa breaks that promise peace and no children.

The news extracts raise wider issues too: how varied conifer-heavy forests really are for wildlife, the role of tree surgeons, and guests who doubt hotels that cut cleaning in the name of sustainability while saving costs.

The numbers

Figures from Wuudbreak's group accounts for the years to 30 September, in N$ million, 2026 against 2025. Ratios are our own, worked out from those figures.

• Revenue: 843.7 against 807.1.
• Gross profit: 601.9 against 557.0.
• Administrative expenses: 234.0 against 215.1.
• Operating profit: 367.9 against 341.9.
• Profit for the year: 233.9 against 214.1.
• Loans: 1,003.8 in both years.
• Bank: 93.3 against 45.8.

What stands out:

• Revenue grew by about 4.5%. Cost of sales fell, so the gross margin rose from about 69.0% to 71.3%.
• Administrative expenses rose by about 8.8%, faster than revenue. The operating margin still improved, from about 42.4% to 43.6%.
• Vannpark earns less revenue (N$776.2m) but a higher operating profit (N$501.4m, a margin of about 64.6%). Its administrative expenses are N$73.0m against Wuudbreak's N$234.0m. That gap is worth understanding.
• Wuudbreak paid out about 31% of its profit as dividends, while Vannpark paid out about 97%. Wuudbreak's loans are about 50% of its equity, against about 30% at Vannpark.

Areas to prepare

These are areas worth understanding well. They are not predictions of exam questions.

• Core activity A (business model, pricing and investment): how a park model that depends on guests staying on site creates value, how dynamic pricing works for short breaks, and how you would appraise growth options for a business with nine parks and high occupancy.
• Core activity B (projects and finance): what a new park, a park redevelopment or a forest improvement scheme would involve, the risks in a large capital project, and how it might be funded given the existing loans.
• Core activity C (performance, cost and leadership): measures for parks such as occupancy, repeat bookings, survey scores and spend per guest, the cost of the short-stay pattern, and managing hundreds of skilled staff per park.
• Core activity D (financial performance and reporting): why administrative costs are so much higher than Vannpark's, what the ratios say, and how to read the accounts of a business with large property and intangible assets.
• Core activity E (groups, reporting and stakeholders): the franchised restaurants, sustainability reporting and its credibility, and handling conflicting views among stakeholders.

How to use the time before your exam

November candidates (11 to 13 November 2026): your exam is next week. Don't try to learn anything new. Reread the pre-seen once, make sure you can explain the business model and the key numbers quickly, and sit at least one timed mock in role.

February candidates (10 to 12 February 2027, booking closes 26 January): you have about three months. Build your understanding of the industry first, then the company. Work through the numbers yourself and compare Wuudbreak with Vannpark. Then move on to regular timed mocks with feedback. Results are due on 1 April 2027.

Prepare with VIVA

Our MCS course takes you through the Wuudbreak pre-seen and each core activity in depth. The Marked Mock Exam Pack gives you exam-style practice, with every script marked against our grid and detailed feedback. Check the timetable on our CIMA case study exam dates page.