how are they doing this?

Need some help ... a friend has asked me how a site is getting such good serps for a kw and i just cant work out why ...

Can you help? or is there anyone that can run some kind of report explaining how/why?

using google .co.uk
kw = cheap holidays
site is 2nd (when i last looked) www. coop travel .co.uk (delete spaces)

my friend thinks they much be upto some BH techniques? he thinks SB and Xrumer? he said they pay a big marketing agency who blast the sh*t out of everything?

any ideas ...

I suggest you use http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com take a look at some of their backlinks and see if any of them leave a footprint similar to links made by SB and Xrumer. Or to be honest just look at how you think they got those backlinks!