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Lonsdale owner buys Harry Weeks Travel
Capita Group has acquired Harry Weeks Travel & Leisure Group for £21 million
A further £12 million will be paid over the next four years subject to the business achieving certain performance targets.
The deal for the Orpington-based business travel specialist follows Capita’s entry into the UK travel management market with the acquisition of Lonsdale Travel in 2005.
The deal includes the company’s Evolvi and Travelpackonline software, employee travel benefits service Leisuretime and rail booking capabilities.
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The entire Harry Weeks 70-strong workforce will transfer to support services company Capita. Harry Weeks’ un-audited accounts for the year ended October 31, 2006 recorded net pre-tax profit of £500,000 on turnover of £3.6 million.
The UK domestic business travel market is worth £6.8 billion, of which 16% is rail travel, according to Capita. The rail market is forecast to grow at between 3.5% and 5.5% a year with business rail travel expected to grow faster.
Capita chief executive Paul Pindar said: “This acquisition provides us with an exciting new proposition in the rail travel market.
“Last year we identified travel management as an area of major spend where we can add value to our public and private sector clients by offering effective solutions and outsourced services.
“With our growing portfolio of travel management services, we believe this will be an interesting market for us going forward.”
Harry Weeks managing director Grahame Weeks said: “Both companies have a strong heritage and we are confident that as a combined entity we will continue to drive the growth of the business and add value to our clients.
“We believe that this move holds many career opportunities for our valued employees.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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