Newmarket Holidays’ chief executive Niel Alobaidi said becoming a shareholder in the business was a ‘no-brainer’, thanks to his team and confidence in the brand.
The escorted tours specialist announced on Wednesday (March 9) that Alobaidi has invested to help the firm’s recovery from Covid.
Alobaidi is Newmarket’s first new shareholder since 1984, when Simon Hibbs joined founders Toni Frei and Jeremy Griffin.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, he said: “Like a lot of businesses, having been through the last two years, we were looking at our finances going forward, and an opportunity came up for me to invest in the business.
“It was really a no-brainer, once that came to the table.”
He said the “adversity” of the pandemic meant he built an “amazing relationship” with the rest of the board and the other three owners.
“We share very similar values. And as a result, our visions are fairly similar. And then with the rest of the team behind us, it was a no-brainer,” he added.
He said his shareholding not a majority holding but it is “significant” – and he is “very confident” about Newmarket’s prospects.
Alobaidi joined as chief executive in September 2019, from Emirates Holidays.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to leave but the opportunity back then with Newmarket Holidays was clear. And I don’t think any of that has really changed,” he said.
He explained that the mature client base is a growing demographic which is becoming more adventurous and “slightly more padded” than other groups from the rising costs of living.
Furthermore, the experiences and complexity of the tours on offer are not easily replicated, he added.
“You’re not going to get Google trying to do complex tours,” he said.
“Within our sector, there’s a real opportunity to grow and grow and grow.
“What the last two years has taught me is that, as a business, we’re very robust.
“We don’t have a lot of debt, even with what we’ve been through.
“We have a team of people [who] have pulled out all the stops.”
More: Newmarket Holidays chief executive invests in company
He said 63,000 passengers had had to cancel or transfer over the past two years. Meanwhile, in 2021 the firm had 10,000 departures, and another 10,000 are due in the next three months.
“Throughout that, we’ve managed to manage those relationships with our trade partners and our customers – things like Trustpilot have actually gone up in that time, which I think is phenomenal,” he told the webcast.
“So when you when you put all of those in place, it was a very obvious decision; there’s a huge opportunity.”
Commenting on the new round of financing, he said it was “the right thing” to have more cash available to deal with any situation such as ongoing problems with Covid-19 or the war in Ukraine.
“We all keep our fingers crossed that [war in Ukraine] comes to an end very soon for everyone involved,” he commented.
The surge of the Omicron variant in December meant the operator had to postpone its turn-of-year campaign but once it did launch in mid-January, the operator caught up for the two week-delay.