John McEwan unveils latest project
A bunch of ‘seasoned travel entrepreneurs’ have joined together to launch a dedicated travel investment fund to support smaller UK travel companies.
Pebble Travel will invest in small, niche travel companies where the owner is looking to retire or sell the business, or in a slightly larger travel businesses based around a tour operator or dynamically packaged model where ‘new investment can accelerate growth and profitability’.
It says it is not bound by timetables and is happy to hold its investments for many years until the value can be realised.
Ideally, the businesses should have a turnover of between £2 million and £20 million.
The Advisory Board includes:
– Stewart Baird, the chief executive of Stone Ventures, the Midlands-based private equity investor behind Pebble Travel. He previously spent 10 years in the travel sector working with Eurostar, Virgin and sitting on the Board of both ABTA and the then Federation of Tour Operators.
– John McEwan, the former chief executive of Advantage and chairman of ABTA, who previously worked for Thomas Cook and Tui.
– Ian Brooks who worked in a number of travel businesses, such as Virgin, but also co- founded and sold the hotel aggregator Medhotels, Ideal Cruising and most recently supported the growth of Gail Kenny Group.
– Craig Burton, MD of luxury winter sports specialist Ski Solutions, has worked in travel for 14 years and led the management buy out of Ski Solutions in 2010.
– Matt Ansell is a chartered accountant, qualifying with Ernst Young where he worked in its restructuring division. Matt is the senior investment manager at Stone Ventures and appraises all new deals.
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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