Barrhead Travel yesterday announced the acquisition of the Holiday Specialists, a Falkirk-based cruise agency.
The deal, in the region of £3 million, will see Scotland’s biggest independent travel group become the UK’s largest retailer of cruises on behalf of leading cruise companies.
Barrhead Travel CEO Sharon Munro led the negotiations after identifying the potential the cruise market could hold for the bespoke travel agent.
The Holiday Specialists’ main business is direct online cruise sales.
Employing a workforce of 60, based at its office in Glenbervie Business Park in Larbert, the company has an annual turnover of £33m via its website.
Barrhead Travel has predicted that this acquisition could see turnover climb 22% to more than £200m next year.
Sharon Munro said: “After a successful year in which the company opened several new managed and corporate branches, we have now taken the next step toward our planned expansion.
“We already have a large, multi-million- pound cruise division, which is expanding year on year. The Cruise Specialists are purely a direct and online cruise retailer, specialising in the luxury end of the market.
“The majority of their customers come from south of the border, and so this purchase will further strengthen the position of Barrhead Travel as a major cruise sales agency within England and the rest of the UK.”
The Cruise Specialists will operate as a subsidiary of the company, and not be integrated into the existing Barrhead Travel or Cruise Direct brands.
The CEO added: “We are taking over a business that is already successful and we don’t see that there’s a requirement to change its operation.
“There is a certain amount of synergy already, such as in the mid-office IT system we both use, and we do envisage that there will be opportunities to cross market with other Barrhead Travel products going forward.”
All staff at the Larbert office will remain employed by the Cruise Specialists.