Travel Counsellors secure secondary buy-out

Travel Counsellors staff portraits, Manchester. Director Steve Byrne. Picture by Paul Heyes, Thursday May 10, 2018.

Travel Counsellors has announced that Vitruvian Partners have backed the company in a secondary management buyout from Equistone Partners Europe.

Vitruvian, an independent private equity firm, initially backed a management buyout of Travel Counsellors, led by CEO Steve Bryne back in 2014. Since then the business has experienced rapid growth.

Statutory turnover and profit have also seen strong growth over the period, growing by an average of 17 per cent and over 20 per cent per annum respectively.

“Steve O’Hare [Senior Partner at Equistone Partners Europe] and Equistone have been integral to our recent success, helping us to scale the business, strengthen the leadership team and invest in the technology and support we provide to our franchisees and colleagues,” Steve Byrne, Chief Executive at Travel Counsellors, said.

“We will always be grateful to them for the support and care they have shown the business, the people in it and the investments they have made in us.”

“The fact that we have secured a secondary buy-out is testimony to the confidence in the long term growth prospects and plans for the company.”

Equistone has invested significantly to help TC’s world-class booking platform, Phenix, achieve rapid growth and scale globally.

“We are excited to announce our investment in Travel Counsellors,” Ben Johnson, Partner at Vitruvian Partners said.

“It is a business with a unique culture and reputation and high standing in the travel industry. We believe in its focus on empowering its Travel Counsellors to work flexibly and smarter using the company’s propriety technology.”

“We only back exceptional high growth technology-enabled businesses with stable, proven leadership teams. We are proud to back the business and just want to help it grow and be even more successful.”

Vitruvian Partners, which has previously backed travel businesses Skyscanner, JacTravel and OAG, as well as a number of technology-enabled marketplaces including listed technology company Just Eat, will continue to invest in and build on Travel Counsellors’ success bringing its wide sector and technology experience together with the company’s differentiated business model and culture.

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buy-out Equistone Partners Europe Steve Byrne travel councellors Vitruvian Partners