Uniglobe Regent Travel has been acquired by Hull-based business travel company Good Travel Management for an undisclosed sum.
The deal for the Stockport-based travel management company is part of ongoing expansion into new regions.
It follows the acquisition of West Midlands-based corporate and leisure travel specialist Mercian Travel in February 2011, and the opening of a new corporate operation in Leeds last July.
The purchase brings the number of locations in the business to five, including Hull, Grimsby, Leeds, West Midlands and Stockport. It completes Good Travel Management’s expansion along the M62 corridor.
Good Travel Management claims to be the UK’s longest established Iata travel business and was registered with the organisation in 1946.
Managing director Kevin Harrison said Uniglobe Regent Travel founders Martyn and Patricia Greenwood had decided to sell the business with a view to eventually retiring.
As directors they will remain an important part of the company for the foreseeable future.
Harrison said: “Uniglobe Regent Travel has many synergies with Good Travel Management including client profile, operational procedure and the quality and experience of their team.
“It has been managed as an extremely tight ship and is a testament to its owners, Martyn and Patricia.
“We decided to purchase the firm due to its existing client base and because of its strategic position in the northwest, which significantly extends our market penetration in the north of England.
“Manchester and the northwest are also important strongholds for our sister companies, John Good Shipping and CBI Transportation UK, which have a major presence there, so we are in a good position to partner with them and grow the business.”
Uniglobe Regent Travel was established in 1997 as a franchise of Uniglobe.
Greenwood said he was pleased that the firm he and his wife had grown together over the past 16 years had been purchased by a family business.
“Despite being a larger company, Good Travel Management is run along the same lines that we have managed our business in terms of values and customer service,” he said.
“Furthermore, our clients will benefit from additional services available from Good Travel Management and the wider John Good Group going forward, which means the business we have worked hard to establish will continue to offer the great value it has become synonymous with.”