Last week Hays Travel announced it had purchased Gateshead-based corporate travel company, Christine Nugent Business Travel, known as Business Travel, and that Nugent had joined Hays Travel to head up the company’s corporate travel division.
Speaking to TTG after the announcement, managing director John Hays said that the intention was to use Nugent’s expertise along with the Business Travel brand to cement Hays’ overall business travel offering.
“It’s definitely our intention to become a main player in that space,” he said. “We are looking at appropriate acquisitions in terms of high street retail shops, and definitely in terms of more corporate travel businesses, or telesales companies – especially in niches such as cruise and long-haul.”
Asked about the size of the acquisitions he was mulling, Hays said: “We will consider larger acquisitions.
“We are interested in cruise – that’s a growth area in general for the travel industry – or anything in the cruise sector we would be interested in.”
Commenting on the Christine Nugent Business Travel acquisition, Hays said: “By merging Business Travel’s specialist expertise and loyal client base with Hays Travel’s size and technology, we should have the right kind of platform to grow the corporate travel part of the business significantly.
“I’m hoping we will gain new business travel accounts both in the north-east and across the other regions in which Hays Travel operates.
“I’m delighted that Christine Nugent will be joining us to help achieve this goal.”
All staff from Christine Nugent Business Travel will join the Hays Travel team.
Nugent added: “After 32 years building a bespoke, corporate travel service with a strong service ethos and an excellent reputation throughout the UK, I am excited to now be working with John and the Hays Group to expand on what we have already built.
“Hays Travel invests heavily in stateof-the-art technology, meaning we will be able to offer both offline and online travel management services
24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
