Brexit could curb dnata’s UK acquisition spree
Brexit has made dnata more cautious about buying more travel businesses in the UK in the near future, its UK chief executive admitted this week.
The Dubai-based business has already bought a number of UK brands, including Gold Medal, Travel 2 and Travelbag.
However, UK chief John Bevan revealed in an interview with TravelMole that it is looking instead at buying businesses in other parts of the world.
"We have quite a lot of businesses in the UK and with Brexit, like a lot of people, we are being a bit more cautious about adding more assets into the UK and we will be more looking at Europe and other parts of the world for investment at the moment until we know what’s going on," he said.
Bevan, who joined dnata UK 18 months ago, said the group’s consumer brand Netflights will open its first non-UK venture in the UAE in September and there are plans for it to expand to two more countries later this year.
"The Netflights brand is going to expand globally and we will have a footprint in many of the countries that we have other businesses in," said Bevan.
"We will also be looking for opportunities for our other B2C brands in other countries."
Bevan also talked about plans to off-set customer’s emissions, removing single-use plastics from the business as well as expansion of its existing brands in the UK. You can hear the full interview here.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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