Long-haul luxury operator Caribtours has acquired Caribbean specialist Just Grenada Group for an undisclosed sum.
The deal, which includes the brands Just Grenada, Just Tobago, Just Bequia, Just Antigua, Just St Lucia, Just Barbados, Just St Kitts & Nevis and Just Slovenia, completed on Friday.
Just Grenada, which was set up in 1998 by owner Gerry Copsey, carries around 1,000 passengers a year with a turnover of around £2 million.
The purchase sees Caribtours acquire the company’s Somerset office, databases and five employees, allowing Copsey to retire.
Caribtours chief executive Paul Cleary said: “I was aware of Just Grenada as there is a lot of crossover in the destinations we feature, but they operate to a lot of very different properties. They are specialists in small hideaways and luxury boltholes across the Caribbean, so I thought there was a neat synergy.
“I have long admired them, so this purchase felt like a really neat, friendly and sensible thing to do.”
“Gerry wanted somewhere for his team, brands and clients to flourish,” he said, adding that Just Grenada is “currently” direct-sell only, hinting that might change over time.
“They are currently direct-sell. Currently. But that’s just because that’s how they’ve evolved,” said Cleary.
Caribtours will retain the existing team headed up by Mandy Burten (pictured), who will report into Cleary, but will run Just Grenada as a separate division of Caribtours. All the brands will remain.
“They will continue to do what they are good at while we do all the heavy lifting behind the scenes through our systems, product teams, marketing department and finance,” he said.
“Just Grenada are the antithesis of the transactional booking. Pre-pandemic, that wasn’t necessarily a great place to be, but post-pandemic, it’s the absolute sweet spot. Their service and know-how is in high demand.”
Cleary said Just Grenada had “done all the right things” as far as its customers were concerned through the pandemic.
The Just Grenada business has already been transferred on to the Caribtours system.
“They took the decision not to renew their own Atol and would become part of Caribtours, and they moved on to our system this morning,” said Cleary.
He added: “We’re delighted and they are delighted. It gives Just Grenada a real opportunity now to grow.”