Long-established Colletts Travel has been sold to US-based Travel Leaders Group for an undisclosed sum.
Formed in 1983 by Roy Collett to focus on worldwide luxury holidays, Colletts Travel has grown into one of the UK’s most respected luxury travel agencies with an annual turnover of about £45 million.
Colletts Travel is based in the London suburb of Hendon and employs 48 staff across three London-area offices and in Lancashire.
The acquisition is described as a “concerted move” designed to further enhance Travel Leaders Group’s expertise in counselling and serving affluent travellers.
Colletts Travel will maintain its brand identity under the Travel Leaders UK umbrella alongside Protravel and Tzell due to its highly-valued and repeat client base.
The leadership of Colletts Travel – including Roy Collett and Michael Berlin, who each serve as managing directors – will report to Travel Leaders UK president Gail Grimmett.
Collett said: “After 33 years of trading, Michael Berlin and I decided that the best path forward to accelerate Colletts Travel’s growth was to secure the backing of a major travel company in the US.
“As the largest traditional travel agency enterprise in North America, Travel Leaders Group will dramatically heighten the array of offerings we can provide to our discerning clientele.”
Travel Leaders Group CEO Ninan Chacko said: “We are thrilled to welcome Colletts Travel – along with its leadership, its highly skilled luxury travel agents, and its exceptional clientele – into the Travel Leaders Group family.
“What attracted us to Colletts is its strong brand reputation within the UK’s luxury leisure market. Colletts only strengthens our already formidable expertise in counselling luxury clientele both here and throughout the world.
Grimmett added: “Together with our Protravel and Tzell UK operations, the addition of Colletts Travel further fortifies our platform here in the UK as we expand our leadership position in serving the extraordinary and sophisticated needs of ultra-high net worth leisure travellers.