Ideal Cruising agency sold to lowcostbeds.com

Ideal Cruising, a specialist travel agency, has been acquired by lowcostbeds.com, in a deal that is expected to be completed by the end of the year and will be subject to final negotiations between the parties and the approval of its shareholders. The price agreed was not disclosed.

The profit-making Camberley-based cruising specialist will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of lowcostbeds.com, and be managed on arms-length basis. The travel agent’s management team will stay on, with the objective of continuing to increase its revenues and its profits.

Although not disclosed, it is thought that the transaction value will exceed £28 million.

The chief executive of lowcostbeds.com, Paul Evans, commented on the deal: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with the management team at Ideal to bring them in to the lowcost group. Ideal is a very successful business, consistently growing revenues and profits since entering the cruise industry four years ago.”

Evans added: “We plan to invest in the management team, technology, staff and marketing to further grow Ideal’s cruise business. The Ideal trading cycle complements the seasonality of lowcostbeds.com’s core beach and city holidays and together we will create a stronger group.”

Tony Youster, Ideal Cruising’s managing director noted: “Ideal has grown rapidly over the last four years and we see huge opportunities in the growing cruise sector to further add value to the cruise operators’ distribution models.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.idealcruising.co.uk