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This follows a string of acquisitions in late 2023, including luxury travel agent Aquilium Club and sports and experiences tour operator Vedere.
The acquisition of eShores brings c£12 million of turnover, taking the collective group Total Travel Value ‘TTV’ to c£20 million, a clear shift in momentum.
Travel Seen group is headed by industry expert Jen Atkinson and backed by Arete Capital Partners with the support of several leading Northwest entrepreneurs.
“The M&A strategy deployed leverages on existing relationships and trust with management teams; targeting companies with pent-up growth potential in off-market transactions. The nature of the deal sourcing offers fair valuations, allowing owner managed businesses to de-risk whilst continuing to work operationally in the business. Post deal they benefit from centralised services to professionalise the processes of owner managed business.”
Gavin Lapidus and Nadine Brown will remain at the helm of eShores post deal, retaining a meaningful equity stake, to ensure continuity of service to their loyal customer base.
eShores specialises in Long Haul Multi Centre Trips which are dynamically packaged for customers to experience a tailor-made trip.
“I am super proud of the journey and growth of eShores to where it is today, this investment represents an exciting new chapter in the continued growth of the business.”
Previous investments into Aquilium Club, a nationwide network of self-employed homeworkers known as ‘Travel Directors’, has seen an increase in sales through focusing on effective lead generation; having recently welcomed an experienced in-house recruiter to scale the network of Travel Directors.
Vedere Travel, led by Alex Catton, former Head of Spectate, the sports division of ITC Travel, for 8 years under Jen Atkinson, offers access to prestigious sporting events worldwide.
Alex’s network of both corporate and private clients has enabled the business to hit the ground running from a standing start. Vedere is on track to exceed their Year 1 target focusing on referrals from socials and curating tailored sporting and lifestyle experiences for High Net Worth (‘HNW’) clients and group sporting tours.
Travel Seen’s focus is on value creation once acquisition targets are onboarded; with value drivers in brand creation, operational excellence and lead generation.
“We have searched for experienced, high growth travel businesses and eShores represents our third exceptional investment within the last 12 months. This next investment represents a step change in the scale and credibility of our growth and M&A mission. One of the most important factors when investing is the quality of the team and what Gavin and Nadine have built through a very difficult trading time is enviable. We are excited to welcome eShores into the Travel Seen family and look to continue making further investments as we grow, both organically and through further investment”
“Since our initial investment in Q3 2021, we have backed Jen’s vision to build a challenger brand in the Travel industry. Over the last 12 months, the business has deployed an M&A strategy which plays to Jen’s strengths and mirrors the success story of her previous experience scaling ITC Travel to a £90 million TTV group prior to exiting”.
Travel Seen is a social first luxury travel group which, over time, will build the most authentic and engaged travel community in the UK. Travel Seen will create inspiring and authentic travel content and deals, directing customers to book these via its curated network of travel companies.
“The opportunity for building travel brands in the social space is huge” says Atkinson, “other sectors such as fashion and beauty have been hugely disrupted by social media and we hope to lead the way similarly, in the travel sector.”
“Cowgills has been working with Travel Seen for a number of years now as a buyside advisor, and we’ve seen the business go from strength to strength. The acquisition of eShores will further enhance the Travel Seen group, as Jen Atkinson and the team continue to make strategic M&A choices to build their client offering and create a unique proposition in the market."
Travel Seen was advised by Cowgills for Corporate Finance (Sam Davies, Brett Marsden, Tom Roberts and Ben Day), Hill Dickinson for Legals (Matt Noon, Alexander Thow, Ben Correia de Sousa) with banking provided by Mercia Capital (advised by Weightmans). eShores were advised by Azets on the deal, led by David Simmons, with Pearson (Keith Kennedy) advising on legals.
