The Minoan Group is seeking agency chains to buy in the north of England
as its looks to “inject some pace” into
its expansion.
The Glasgow-based group has bought Scottish agencies including Stewart Travel, King Travel and Semple Travel since 2011 and now has 14 branches.
Chief executive Duncan Wilson said: “There isn’t much more to do in Scotland, so we will be invading England again. We have looked more than once to expand into England but haven’t got there.”
He added: “We will start in the north of England because we don’t want to be spattered all over the place.
“We want to buy shops in clusters and have a regional presence in the north or the Midlands. We are going to inject a bit of pace into our expansion this year – we had a pause for breath last year.”
Wilson, a former chief executive of MyTravel, described 2013 as a “waste of time in terms of growth and expansion”.
He said the focus last year had been on ensuring Minoan Group’s 13 shops were all branded with the Stewart Travel name. It has also installed the same back-office systems in all branches.
Minoan last month bought a 14th agency, one-shop Aberdeen-based Martin Singer Travel, for an initial £250,000.
Wilson said Minoan wasn’t generally interested in one-off shops but Martin Singer Travel was different because of its proximity to Aberdeen airport.
Now its focus is on buying small agency chains in the north of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Our focus is little groups of six, eight, 10 or 20 shops,” he added.
Wilson said Minoan would not borrow from banks to make acquisitions. The group last week reported a £604,000 profit on a turnover of £51.2 million for the year to October 31, 2013.
Wilson admitted a trial installation of travel kiosks in post offices had proved unsuccessful, adding: “I have no issue with things that don’t work; we move on.”
He declined to comment about this year’s Scottish vote on independence.