Gray Dawes Group has acquired Australian travel management business MP Travel as part of its strategic global growth plans.
The deal – its 12th acquisition to date – takes family-owned Gray Dawes Group’s turnover to over of £250m and pushes employee numbers beyond 250.
Suzanne Horner, Gray Dawes Group CEO, said the TMC’s out-of-hours service is already resourced in Australia.
“So, with the addition of something in the US next, we’d have a follow-the-sun set up – that’s our strategy,” she said.
“Our clients increasingly want global solutions, even the smaller ones. They’re taking us on the journey. We’ve been very successful picking up businesses in the UK and integrating them. We know how to do that well. Now we’re doing that overseas and Australia is the beginning with MP Travel.”
She said Gray Dawes has weathered the pandemic storm of the last two years better than most.
“Welcoming MP Travel into the group only strengthens our position and global offering. MP Travel is renowned in Australia for their loyal and outstanding staff,” she added.
Lynn Manuel, joint Managing Director of MP Travel, said: “I am very excited by the opportunity to work with Suzanne and her tea and thrilled for MP Travel’s staff to be part of an award-winning travel management company.”
Joint MP Travel Managing Director, Kerri Primrose, added: “There are so many synergies across the businesses which makes this a very natural fit. By being part of the Gray Dawes Group, we will be even stronger and able to deliver enhanced global opportunities to our staff and clients alike.”
MP Travel was one of the few remaining privately-owned travel management companies in Australia, established in 1989 by Kerri Primrose and Lynn Manuel.
It is a shareholder in the Australian CT Partners Group with $1.5 billion corporate buying power.
