Good Travel moves for Uniglobe franchise
CORPORATE travel business Good Travel Management is continuing its strategy of growth with the purchase of Uniglobe Regent Travel.
Stockport-based Uniglobe has been bought by Good Travel, of Hull, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition forms part of Good Travel’s ongoing push to expand into new regions.
It follows the acquisition of West Midlands-based corporate and leisure travel specialist Mercian Travel in February 2011, and the opening of a new corporate operation in Leeds in July last year.
The purchase brings the number of locations in the business to five, including Hull, Grimsby, Leeds, the West Midlands and Stockport.
Kevin Harrison, managing director of Good Travel Management, said Uniglobe Regent Travel founders Martyn and Patricia Greenwood had decided to sell the business with a view to eventually retiring.
Mr Harrison said: “Uniglobe Regent Travel has many synergies with Good Travel Management including client profile, operational procedure and the quality and experience of their team.
“It has been managed as an extremely tight ship and is a testament to its owners, Martyn and Patricia.
“We decided to purchase the firm due to its existing client base and because of its strategic position in the North West, which significantly extends our market penetration in the north of England.
“Manchester and the North West are also important strongholds for our sister companies John Good Shipping Ltd and CBI Transportation UK Ltd, which have a major presence there, so we are in a good position to partner with them and grow the business.”
Uniglobe Regent Travel was established in 1997 as a franchise of Uniglobe, the world’s largest single branded travel group. The business specialises in corporate travel.
Mr Greenwood said he was pleased that the firm he and his wife had grown together over the past 16 years had been purchased by a family business.
He said: “Despite being a larger company, Good Travel Management is run along the same lines that we have managed our business in terms of values and customer service,” he said.
“Furthermore our clients will benefit from additional services available from Good Travel Management and the wider John Good Group going forward, which means the business we have worked hard to establish will continue to offer the great value it has become synonymous with.”
