International deal puts company in cruise control
Cruise.co has agreed a deal to buy a German cruise travel agency, giving it a major presence in Europe’s two largest cruise markets.
The Redditch-based business has bought Kreuzfahrtberater.de in a €25m (£22m) deal.
The combined business will have cruise sales of around £220m, which it says will make it the largest cruise travel agency in Europe.
Seamus Conlon, chief executive of Cruise.co, said: “Both companies share a passion for the sector, have great staff and the technology required to deliver great service.
“This transaction allows us to diversify our business by moving into a new large cruising market and represents a major step forward in Cruise.co achieving its strategic aim of becoming the leading pan-European cruise online travel agency.”
Cruise.co was spun out of Carnival Corporation in 2007, when Conlon led an MBO. It was bought by private equity firm Bridgepoint last year for £52m.
Last year the UK ocean cruise market totalled 1.89m passengers, slightly behind the German which achieved 2.02m.
The cruise market is set for major expansion in the next few years with 65 ships set to enter the market, including new entrants Virgin and Ritz Carlton who recently announced their entry into the market.
The deal will see the founders of Kreuzfahrtberater.de – Friedrich Koester, Malte Koester and Andreas Koester-Clobes – “reinvest significantly in the combined business” and will remain a part of the management team.
Kreuzfahrtberater.de, based in Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, employs more than 60 staff.
Friedrich Koester said: “We have chosen Cruise.co and Bridgepoint as partners to drive consolidation in the market and grow our business more strongly. Together with our fantastic team we are excited to broaden our product offering and share knowledge with our new UK colleagues.”
The combined company’s websites – Cruise.co.uk, Cruises.uk, Kreuzfahrtberater.de and Seascanner.com – will have total annual traffic of more than 37.5m visits.
