Bespoke travel company up for grabs with price tag of up to £200m

Equistone, the private equity owner of bespoke travel company the Travel Counsellors, has appointed Rothschild to offload the business for a possible asking price of up to £200m.

The company, headquartered near the Trafford Centre, achieved revenue of £188m in 2016, and could now be sold, floated on the stock market or refinanced.

It was launched from a small shop in Atherton, between Wigan and Bolton, in 1994 by entrepreneur David Speakman, who pioneered an idea for travel planners to work from home.

The company later moved to Bolton town centre before moving to Manchester in 2016.

It now has 1,700 agents, who help speciality trips abroad. Speakman sold the business to Equistone in 2014 for £100m, the same year as it won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Travel Counsellors is refusing to comment.