Voyana to be bought following Totally Travel restructure

First4cruising parent company Totally Travel has undergone a major restructure and is poised to acquire rival cruise retailer Voyana under a new holding company.

Totally Travel has gone into administration as part of the shake-up but its brands continue to trade as normal under new holding company TTLH.

Chairman and chief executive Harry Goodman and former Libra boss Andreas Drakou have become joint investors in new holding company TTLH after buying the assets of Totally Travel in January. The pair have invested a total of more than £1 million in the new business.

Goodman said the decision to restructure the business, which has a turnover of £35 million to £40 million, followed two years of losses.

“The business needed a restructure and it was carrying old debts. It lost money over the last two years during the recession. We have now refinanced it and are expanding it,” Goodman said.

He added: “There are no trade creditors owed any money for Totally Travel; the main losers are the investors such as myself. No-one has been sacked, no passengers’ holidays have been disrupted, no travel suppliers left out of pocket and we have not changed premises, it is simply a restructure of the business at the top.”

The Leicester-based group is set to complete the acquisition of cruise and tailormade specialist Voyana next week, said Goodman, and will look at further acquisitions over coming months.

“Over the next three to four months we will add new brands to the stable; it could be one or it could be two, it depends what comes on the market,” he said.

This could include specialist tour operators with a turnover of £15 million to £40 million. TTLH has also invested in new start-up company VIP Leisure Travel, which was established in March and sells to closed user groups.