TD Travel sold to private equity buyers

CORPORATE travel agency TD Travel has been sold by co-founders Simon King and John Owen to a management buy-out team backed by private equity firm LDC.

The Wilmslow-based company, which has been trading for over 25 years, will now be run by a buy-out team led by new chief executive Ian White. He jointed the company as commercial director six years ago.

TD Travel currently employs around 60 staff and in the year to March 31, 2011 it made a pre-tax profit of £879,000 on revenues of £40.6m. Alongside its Wilmslow base, the firm also has offices in Hull, Leeds and Liverpool.

Mr White will also be joined on the board by new non-executive chairman Dick Porter, who was a former co-founder of STA Travel.

Mr White said: “Securing the backing of LDC is a strong endorsement of the business we’ve built to date, particularly our customer service ethos.

“We’re now ideally placed to accelerate the growth of the business by scaling our core model in new regions and evolving our customer proposition to include new products and services.”

Tony Norwood, who led the investment for LDC in Leeds and also joins the board, said: “This is about backing both a proven business model and a dynamic, ambitious management team.

“TD Travel has developed a genuinely differentiated proposition as a consultant-led travel management company securing the loyalty of an impressive customer base.

“Ian and his team have a huge amount of experience across the entire travel sector and we look forward to supporting them as they continue to build on the business’ impressive historical track record.”

LDC was advised on the deal by accountancy firm BDO.  Chris Moss, head of corporate at entrepreneurial Manchester law firm JMW Solicitors advised TD Travel assisted by by Vicky Protano and Nina Latham.