What has driven the rebrand to Good Business Travel and the launch of the new umbrella brand, The Good Travel Collective?

It started as a legal coming together of the two businesses following Good Travel Management’s acquisition of CT Travel Group, to become one legal entity for trading. As the new combined leadership team came together, for development and team alignment, there was very much a desire to start afresh as a new entity to recognise that we were more than just a business travel brand and that we cover a much broader spectrum, as well as showing who we truly are.

Alongside leaders from both Good and CT, we had also recruited in some key new roles, including a Supplier Relations Director, a new Technology Director and a Director of Groups and Events, so it felt like we were a new company and should have a fresh start for the new team, not just as a travel management company but also clearly defining our groups and events division and our leisure travel operations.

We wanted to keep the ‘Good’ name, not just because it’s the family name of our parent company, the John Good Group, but because it also reflects the strong commitment to doing good, whether that’s how we do business and work with our clients, our social responsibilities, and being a good company to work for. This is something we want to strengthen even further under the new umbrella brand, The Good Travel Collective.

I’ve been with the business for over 20 years, and this repositioning is something I personally feel very proud of, and proud to represent. The new brand, The Good Travel Collective, very much takes us forward into the next phase with our ambitions to expand as a travel business, both in the UK and overseas, be profitable and sustainable, and in turn be able to make a difference through our social impact programmes and the funding of The Matthew Good Foundation. We’ve been committed to social responsibility for a long time, but I think we’ve been somewhat modest about it. Now is the right time to really show the positive things that we’re doing and for our clients to see that by working with us, this supports our wider impact.

How do you plan to strengthen the focus on social impact?

Our parent, John Good Group, has been operating for more than 190 years and gives 10% of its profits each year to our charitable foundation, The Matthew Good Foundation, in memory of Matthew Good, who was the sixth generation to work in the group. He was Joint Managing Director of the company but passed away in June 2011, aged just 32, while running a marathon for charity. Since its inception, the Foundation has donated more than £1.2m to hundreds of good causes in the UK and overseas, particularly smaller charities and community groups, many of them close to the hearts of our employees.

But alongside this, we have also been helping our clients in terms of their social responsibility, helping them to find ways to give back. This might be supporting them on their ESG journeys, or in future that could include setting up infrastructures for their employees to do volunteering, in the UK or overseas. We already work in a lot of emerging markets through our tour operation and our trade missions’ divisions and have ambitions to encourage more businesses to follow our lead in social impact and work with a trusted travel partner. This is something we’re seeing our clients asking for more and more and with our new divisions, particularly Good Business Travel, GT Groups and GT Trade Missions, we are well placed to support them.

The John Good Group and Matthew Good Foundation are currently recruiting for a Partnerships Manager who will take a lead to identify likeminded businesses. These might be our existing business travel clients but might also be new businesses who would like us to develop their social impact programmes.

You are also launching a dedicated events division, Never Beige. Tell us more about that.

We are seeing an increasing demand for an end-to-end events management solution, particularly from businesses with remote workforces where they want to bring their people together to build culture and community, or to come together with their suppliers or partners.

It was a natural progression from our expertise in handling group travel, but rather than just facilitating the event by managing the travel and logistics, the team at Never Beige will be looking at the whole concept – what the customer wants to achieve from their budget, how they want their people to feel, what’s the purpose of the event, is it motivational, is it recognition or reward? The team, led by recently recruited Groups and Events Director, Lesley-Anne Brandon, will be looking at the whole end-to-end experience, with the help of our in house event management and marketing team, to establish what the business wants to deliver and to take complete ownership of the entire experience.

Is there potential for synergy between your business travel divisions and your two leisure brands?

Yes, when we acquired CT Business Travel we also acquired Pettitts Travel, a tour operator specialising in India, Sri Lanka and other destinations worldwide, and a retail business, AG River Cruises. They are already strong in their respective markets and under their brands, but there are greater opportunities to support clients through an employee travel programme, or if they have employees travelling on business who want to stay extend their stays and add on some kind of leisure element to their work trip.

This can prove quite challenging for corporates, particularly in the online booking arena, but new technologies are coming to market which can bridge that gap, giving the employee the means to pay for that element of the trip without compromising the corporate budget, and also not compromising the corporate infrastructure in terms of duty of care and corporate responsibility. This is something we’re looking very closely at.

Are there plans for further acquisitions?

The current turnover of the combined businesses is just over £90 million and it’s our ambition to double the size of the business over the next five years, predominantly through organic growth, but this could be exceeded through strategic acquisitions in any of the sectors we operate in – business travel, group travel and event management, or through our tour operating and leisure agency.

Our parent company is strongly committed to the travel sector and is looking for long-term growth, but only with businesses or people who are like minded and share the same belief in doing business well, and being aligned to our approach to People, Planet and Performance.

John Good Group is a family business that’s been in travel for generations and we have shareholders that invested in its longevity. They don’t take big dividends and instead they invest back into the business and through our charitable foundation. This is also very good from an employee perspective as we offer exceptionally good benefits for our people, alongside opportunities to be involved in our charitable and social impact work. Where we’ve done acquisitions, the sellers find us to be an attractive organisation to work with because they’re moving into a stable business that’s got longevity and stability.

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