Expotel goes for growth

EXPOTEL, the Northenden-based business travel company, is expanding its meetings and events division.

The company, which last week announced that it had won £30m of new business over the year, said that it would consider an acquisition to help its growth plans in the meeting, incentive, conference and  events market (MICE).

And it is recruiting “one or two” staff for its sales and management teams in that division, ready for the upturn.

Chief executive Ian Burnley said: “I would not rule out an acquisition to support our plans in the MICE market.

“However, we are confident that we can grow this business organically by continuing to build our team. 

“We will try and make additions to the team in sales and management roles over the coming months to help us take advantage of the opportunities open to us.

“The meetings market is obviously very flat at the moment but our long term growth plans remain in place and we hope to find the right people to add to the team during the autumn.”

The private company, which has 400 staff, was bought by Phoenix Equity Partners last year.

It is the country’s leading hotel and conference booking agent and books more than one million room nights a year in the UK.