Educational travel firm buys Essex rival
Blackpool-based specialist educational travel company Next Generation Travel has acquired Essex-based Anglia Tours, the largest provider of fully-guided history tours for UK schools, in a seven figure deal.
The acquisition sees the £11m-turover group, which organises school trips throughout the UK, Europe and the US, increase its 2017/18 turnover to £17m, with staff figures increasing from 45 to 68.
Established in 2010, by the same management team who sold Blackpool-based NST to Holiday Break for £47m in 2007, Next Generation Travel includes the WST Travel and FHT Travel brands.
This latest strategic acquisition, which will take annual passenger figures to over 50,000, follows the group’s expansion success in 2013, which saw the firm purchase FHT Travel Ltd, a Cambridgeshire-based specialist tour operator which provides trips for students in further and higher education.
Deborah Beckett, managing director of Next Generation Travel, said: “Anglia Tours has developed a reputation for excellence over the last 20 years. Matching our commitment to high levels of customer service and product innovation, we are delighted to join forces and look forward to growing the business and maintaining the exceptional standards customers have come to expect from the brand.”
Alain Chissel, chairman of Anglia Tours, said: “We now have in place the secure foundations for the next stage in our development, enabling us to focus on what we care about most, our customers, our staff, our suppliers, the places we visit, the stories we tell and the organisations we work with.”
Keith Melling at Napthens and RSM advised NGT on the deal.
