Barrhead seeks investor to help expansion
Barrhead Travel has appointed BDO to find an investor to help it grow.
The agency chain said it hopes to find a ‘suitable partner’ to ‘assist it in accelerating its ambitious growth plans’.
It said it has already proven in the past that its business model is resilient and ‘will expand during the potentially turbulent times ahead when other businesses may retreat’.
The group reported gross turnover up £21m to £267m and profits up by 66% this financial year.
It attributed the growth to ‘investment in technology, recent shop openings now maturing, longhaul and cruise sales increasing, alongside improvements to websites’.
CEO Sharon Munro said: "I am delighted with our results especially in what was a difficult trading year.
"We have exciting plans for the rest of the year with the introduction of Virtual Reality headsets into our stores which will allow our customers to view hotel public areas and bedrooms along with destination experiences before they book.
"We are also about to launch a new online customer portal providing customers with a secure online space which allows the Barrhead team to deliver a very personalised and unique service from start to finish."
Barrhead is now targeting two more shop openings in England this year with plans for more shops across the UK in 2017.
This will be alongside investment in product specialists within its call centre operations.
The company will also be launching a dedicated high tech training academy next month at its Glasgow head office.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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