06 February 2009

Long haul operator taken over

Luxury travel company Original Travel has acquired bespoke long-haul tour operator Tim Best Travel for an undisclosed sum.

Both Original Travel and Tim Best Travel claim to have seen uninterrupted growth since their inceptions in 2003 and 1994 respectively.

Revenues at Original Travel have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 75% since launch while Tim Best Travel has experienced 15-20% revenue growth over the last few years.

Original Travel, which offers trips to 84 countries, raised private equity capital in 2007.

Prior to starting Original Travel co-founder Nick Newbury worked as a corporate financier with ING Barings and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Alastair Poulain was a venture capitalist with Sun Capital Partners and prior to that in the army where he spent two years as Equerry to HRH the Prince of Wales, and Tom Barber was a journalist.

Among the non-executive team are explorer Bear Grylls, Julian Hanson-Smith of Iceni Capital and Martin Leppard, former managing dirctor of the UK travel arm of Cendant Group.

Newbury said: "The equity capital raised in June 2007 has allowed us to assemble one of the best teams in the business, increase our client base, market-share and product offering both organically and acquisitively, and for the benefit of all our customers.

"Tim Best is a doyen of the luxury travel industry and Tim Best Travel is a market leader staffed by extremely knowledgeable consultants with an excellent database of clients who expect the best bespoke travel advice, much like our existing clients.

"We look forward to working alongside Tim and his team to build on both companies’ successes."

Best, owner and director of Tim Best Travel, said: "In the search to expand the business, we have had discussions with several companies, and looked at a variety of possibilities.

"We have chosen to go ahead with what we believe to be the most exciting opportunity. Original Travel’s dynamic and innovative management team are ideal partners to take the company onwards and upwards."

by Phil Davies