Dnata Travel has confirmed it will be keeping both the Gold Medal and Travel 2 brands, following completion of its acquisition of Stella Travel Services.
Speaking in London as the final agreement for the buyout was completed, dnata Travel’s divisional senior vice president Iain Andrew told Travel Weekly that he saw value in both, despite the view they offer something very similar.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, for Travel 2 parent Stella Travel Services was finally sealed last night after it had been granted regulatory approval by the European Commission last week.
Andrew said: “I would say that Travel 2 and Gold Medal are doing very different things and so it’s about making sure we do the best that we can with both.
“Clearly people like Travel 2 for a number of reasons and people like Gold Medal for a number of reasons, so putting them together makes no sense.
“There’s a great setup in both Glasgow and in Preston – and great people working in both locations. It would be a massive project to look at how we would restructure that and so it’s much better to grow them both than to merge one into another.”
He added: “We certainly won’t be competing against each other. We want to grow both businesses and if that means that we’re going to be more aggressive with the competition, then so be it.”
Andrew continued: “Everything is going to stay as it is. It’s very much business as usual particularly through the peaks. I’ve spent time with the team in Preston and in Glasgow and see a lot of value in both locations and the people working in each one. We don’t see any change to that at all.”
He said he would look for some synergies, but “easy ones”, like procurement and contracting, whether that be of hotels or airlines.
And he added that some things were better done by one company than another, so expertise in certain areas would be shared to improve elements of both Gold Medal and Travel 2.
“The paperwork may be better at one for example, and the product in Asia may be better with another, so we’ll give both brands the full breadth of product and full processes benefits, but both brands will remain.
“It’s a B2B business and most customers know we own both and are fine with that. It would be more difficult if it were B2C.”
Andrew said he was also keen to grow Travelbag, but stressed that would be via a “handful” of outlets rather than hundreds.
And he added: “I’m looking more at how Travelbag can help me and my 200 agencies in the Middle East. Most of our customers are going long-haul and we don’t have good retailers in the group so I will be getting Tony’s team to help us.”
Andrew said he was also looking at product expansion wherever the group had a gap, and identified cruise as an area dnata was still keen to add to its portfolio.
Outside that, he said the group had to be careful about how much it acquires in the UK.
“There are a load of good assets in the UK but we have to be realistic about how much we can do in the UK and are therefore looking at Russia, Germany, South America and Asia but it’s more difficult.”