Travel Counsellors and ad hoc charter airline Titan Airways have both been ranked as among the top 200 mid-market UK private companies with the fastest growing overseas sales.
Travel Counsellors, which has more than 1,800 home-based agents running their own businesses across the UK, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, South Africa, Australia and the UAE, appears in 188th position with international sales growth estimated at almost 28% to £47.3 million last year.
It is the seventh time the business has been ranked in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200, after expanding into seven countries and achieving double-digit growth year-on-year since the its inception by founder David Speakman in 1994.
Earlier this month Vitruvian Partner bought the company from fellow private equity firm Equistone with Speakman selling his final interest in the business.
Group turnover at Travel Counsellors has increased by 59% over the past three years, and growth in international operations increasing by 75% at the same time.
The company’s total transaction value for the financial to October 2016 was £512 million, of which 27% was generated outside of the UK.
Titan Airways features at 43rd place in the list with average international sales growth over the past two years of 78%.
The airline, which runs a fleet of 12 Airbus and Boeing aircraft, saw overseas sales hit £23.3 million in 2017 with Alastair Wilson taking over in December from his father and founder Gene Wilson, now chairman.
Titan Airways provides aircraft to support other airlines such as Aer Lingus and Euorwings and has at least two with crew on standby at Stansted ready to take off within one hour.
The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table ranks companies with the fastest-growing global sales, measured over their latest two years of available accounts, with minimum total sales of £25 million and international sales of at least £1 miilion.
Last year Travel Counsellors was also named in The Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 league table, ranking Britain’s mid-market growth private companies with the biggest sales, and received the 2017 National Business Award for Customer Focus.
CEO Steve Byrne said: “We are thrilled to be recognised for the seventh time for our continued growth overseas.
“The international success of our business model is in no small part due to the care we show to our customers, using technology to enhance the personal relationships and exceptional service our Travel Counsellors provide to their loyal client base.
“This is why our model has really been embraced by the overseas markets we have expanded into, with our international presence also benefiting our Travel Counsellors and their customers by building on our global buying power, local knowledge and enabling true 24/7 support.”
He adds: “To build on our growth and the support we give to our Travel Counsellors, we are investing heavily in our people and the technology to enable them to provide customers with a truly personalised and authentic travel experience.
“Over the past 12 months alone we have invested £6m in our global technology, including the launch of our own customer app and the continued development of our in-house booking system, Phenix.”