Bolton-based travel management company SAT Business Travel Management has changed hands in a management buy-out with founder Andrew Dickson leaving to become a consultant.
Dickson, who sold his St Andrews Travel retail business to South African resort operator Zorgvliet last year, has created a new consultancy call The WOW Factor that will advise businesses on how to outperform the market with good customer service.
He will also continue working as a consultant to St Andrews Travel and be its owner’s representative in the UK, but after suffering a health scare last year he has decided to take a step back from the business he set up 24 years ago.
“I am 60 next year and after my health scare of last year it has certainly focussed my mind on where I was going and what I was doing in the future,” Dickson said.
“After the sale of St Andrews Travel I was approached by several parties who wanted to buy my business travel company which was about twice the size of the retail.”
SAT Business Travel Management’s former financial director Barbara Lawson is now the new managing director with sales director Paul Sutton and operations director Heather Haslam making up the new management team.
“The three of them have helped get the company where it is today and going forward the business could not be in safer hands, it was by far the best result all round,” added Dickson.