Co-operative Travel Management has bought City of London-based Parador Travel Management in a deal that will take its sales above £100 million a year and put the Co-op in the UK’s top-ten business travel companies.
Parador is an independent firm with offices in the city and Bury St Edmunds. The takeover, for an undisclosed sum, will extend the business travel arm of Co-operative Travel to 16 offices.
Co-operative Travel managing director Mike Greenacre said the company is looking at further acquisitions in travel management and is keen to open officers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Greenacre said: “Parador is an important acquisition because it provides the London base that is clearly required in this sector if we are to compete for large national accounts that have headquarters in the City.”
Travel management companies reported a record sales year in 2007 and growth continued into the first quarter of this year according to latest figures from the Guild of Travel Management Companies.
Parador owners Alan Weiner and Peter Levinger will leave the company, but maintain their association with the industry through publishing company, Absolute Publishing, which works with travel association ABTA.