The TravelMole Interview: Mark Jones, Online Travel Corporation

Tuesday, 11 Jun, 2002 0

Mark Jones, chief executive of Online Travel Corporation has conceded that the company has bought online travel website Travelstore.com for a good price.

OTC has paid £2.1million for Travelstore including Amersham Travel, Oxford Technology Solutions and Equator-net. In 2000 Travelstore paid over £5million for Amersham and bought Equator-net for £4.9m.

In addition since 1999 Travelstore has raised some £27m in cash, including a rights issue for £7m in October 2000 at which point the business was valued at £25m. Mr Jones told TravelMole: “We think we have got quite a good deal.”

Mr Jones said that while “leisure business has been growing substantially over the last couple of years corporate travel has been flat” due to factors including the economic downturn. He said that he believed the time was right for both business travel and the take up of online booking solutions to “buck up” – hence OTC’s decision to buy Travelstore. All its business travel interests will now be migrated to the high-profile Travelstore brand.

According to Mr Jones further consolidation in the business travel sector is “inevitable” as companies seek economies of scale. He told TravelMole: “There’s a lot of small and medium sized companies who can’t continue at their current size”.

Mr Jones said he believed Travelstore had the most advanced business travel management technology in Europe. He added that he expected shortly to introduce technology that would allow business travel agents to compare prices between the traditional airlines and the no frills carriers.

Travelstore would be looking to take on accounts that were profitable and which showed a willingness to take on and use online booking tools, he added.

OTC claims to be the UK’s largest online travel supplier and retailer, owning and powering websites with over 1.6m users a month. It provides travel content and fulfilment services to almost 50 leading online companies including Virgin.net, Freeserve, Expedia, BTInternet and the Telegraph.

See our previous stories:
10-Jun-02: OTC snaps up Travelstore.com for £2.1million
15-May-02: OTC offers tailor-made holidays online
08-Jun-01: OTC acquires EMAP Digital Travel assets

See previous TravelMole interviews:
27-May-02: Oliver Hillel, UNEP
20-May-02: Keith Webber, Telewest
13-May-02: Mark O’Brien, Rosenbluth International
07-May-02: Alicia Gardner, Sabre
29-Apr-02: Carolyn Ezzell, Delta Air Lines
23-Apr-02: John Davis, Pegasus Solutions
15-Apr-02: Gregory Hunt, ABTA Arbitration Scheme
09-Apr-02: Stuart Winter, Atinera
03-Apr-02: Roberto Da Re, Dolphin Dynamics
26-Mar-02: Arnaud Debuchy, Amadeus
19-Mar-02: Helen Baker, Lastminute.com
12-Mar-02: Pat Minogue, Galileo
07-Mar-02: Jon Hart, MyTravel
28-Feb-02: Lawrence Hunt, Rapid Travel Solutions