Spear Travels Group aims to boost its shop network by ‘one to two’ new branches in the next 12 months.
Managing Director Peter Cookson said discussions to acquire a 13th store were currently taking place.
The miniple bought Regent Travel in Staffordshire in June this year, which also included a tour operation business, and at the time said it was back on the acquisition trail following the “difficult Covid years”.
Cookson said: “We are still planning on expanding; we have one in the pipeline at the moment. We want to take one or two more [shops] in the next 12 months. I would be disappointed if we didn’t.”
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Acquisitions were likely to be where an existing owner wanted to exit the industry or retire, he said, but had to be in the right location for the agency chain.
Cookson added: “We still get approached all the time about who we would like to acquire but there has to be a meeting of minds between the two owners [us and the shop owners]. It must ‘fit’.
“The biggest problem is making sure that we are not having to do what they should have done with regards to getting staffing up to scratch. They have to have the right staffing in place.”
With business from new customers now making up over 30% of turnover, compared with 7% to 9% pre Covid, Cookson said he felt ”even more strongly” now about the importance of the high street.
Average sales booking values have jumped by 35% on pre-Covid levels, he added, with October trading “off the scale” followed by a slight slowdown in November.
He predicts next year will be “back to normal growth”.
The first six weeks of trading for its current financial year, which started on October 1, have seen sales up by 27% on its best ever year
“I am not looking at [sales] records being broken next year,” he said, adding that there is more likely to be more normal organic growth.