Kuoni parent DER Touristik UK has said it “remains open” to further acquisitions four months on from buying Journey Latin America.
Speaking at the launch of Kuoni’s Worldwide Travel Report for 2019, chief executive Derek Jones said the company could acquire another destination specialist this year.
He said: “We remain open to opportunities and hopefully this year we will be able to add to the list and have a bigger distribution portfolio.”
The company bought specialist operator Journey Latin America at the start of November last year.
Jones said the success of that acquisition had given the company the confidence to pursue other opportunities.
“Having done JLA, and gone through that process, that has given us a degree of confidence. It’s only been four months and it has been really successful and given us the appetite to want to take that on again. It is opportunistic,” he said. Kuoni stores are already selling JLA and sales were going from “strength to strength”, he added.
Meanwhile, Jones also said further Kuoni concessions were likely to open in John Lewis & Partners department stores despite the company’s shop network now being broadly “the size we want it to be”.
Kuoni now has 49 stores, and has just opened its latest shop in the intu Trafford Centre in Manchester.
He added: “There are three or four live opportunities we are considering with John Lewis & Partners at the moment. It’s the same with the high street, we would continue to refresh (the network) if a great opportunity comes up for additional stores.”
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