Within a year of buying Baxter Hoare Travel, Adam White has expanded his travel management business with the addition of Pressplan Travel.
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, marks a substantial expansion into the events arena for Baxter Hoare, itself an events specialist.
Pressplan is an officially appointed travel management company (TMC) for some 40 worldwide exhibitions and trade fairs.
White, managing director of Baxter Hoare Travel, said: “This is a great fit. We are delighted to welcome the Pressplan team whose experience compliments the deep knowledge of the Baxter Hoare staff, which when combined will enable us to develop our business, personal and events travel businesses to new highs.”
All of Pressplan’s staff, currently based in St. Albans, will join the Baxter Hoare team in London Bridge.
The Pressplan Travel brand will be dropped for the major part, but retained for the German market, said White.
Speaking to ABTN, he said: “For German shows, the name Pressplan will stay certainly for the time being... Pressplan handle about 20 events in Germany and are very well known for those.
“In all the other countries in the world that we operate events, including in the UK and Dubai, we will be under the Baxter Hoare brand.”
White, formerly the managing director of Bath Business Travel, bought Baxter Hoare in May 2010 and remains on the acquisition trail.
“Baxter Hoare is expanding at a rapid rate,” White told ABTN. “We have a twin strategy. Firstly through growing the business organically as quickly as we can, and secondly through targeted acquisitions that make sense, where there is great compatibility. That is one of the reasons we bought Pressplan.”
White said the lineage of Pressplan, which has been in business for nearly 50 years, was a good fit for Baxter Hoare, which was founded in 1883.
The profile of Pressplan’s staff was another plus point, said White: “It is very similar to those that we’ve got at Baxter Hoare – the average tenure of our staff is 14.2 years, which is miles higher than 3.6, which is about the industry average.”
www.baxterhoare.com www.pressplantravel.com