TVZ.L Regulatory News (TVZ)

22 Dec 2006 07:01

Travelzest plc22 December 2006 Date: 22 December 2006 On behalf of: Travelzest plc ("Travelzest" or the "Company") Embargoed until: 0700hrs Travelzest plc Acquisition of Wow House Limited Travelzest plc, the British online travel group offering specialist travelprogrammes, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the specialist UKaccommodation provider, Wow House Limited, trading as The Wow House Company, foran initial payment of £95,000. Wow House Limited was founded by Nick House in 2005 and offers an exclusiveportfolio of large, prestigious houses to rent for short breaks in the UK. Thecompany also offers a comprehensive event planning service. Nick will remainwith the company as Managing Director and will be entitled to an earn-outpayable in shares in Travelzest plc. Commenting on the acquisition, Chris Mottershead, Group Chief Executive, said: "I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Wow House and to welcome NickHouse to the Travelzest Group. This company provides an excellent opportunityand adds to our growing portfolio of specialist tour operators. It alsodemonstrates our ability to identify early-stage businesses with experiencedmanagement and the potential to capture a greater share of their niche markets." Travelzest plc 020 7747 7231Christopher Mottersheadwww.travelzestplc.com Redleaf Communications 020 7822 0200Emma Kane / Duncan McCormick / Samantha Robbins Background information on Travelzest Travelzest is a British on-line travel group with high quality brands offeringspecialist holiday programmes and services. Chris Mottershead, 48, the Group Chief Executive who founded Travelzest in April2005, has extensive experience in the travel industry and in working for bothlarge and small organisations. He was managing director of TUI UK between 2001and 2004 with responsibility for Thomson Holidays, Lunn Poly, Travelhouse andother travel businesses based in the UK. During that time, he steered thecompany through one of the most difficult periods for travel and still achievedrecord profits. Prior to this, he was President and CEO, North American LeisureGroup, Airtours plc, which he joined in 1999. His roles previously withinAirtours plc included managing director and finance director of AirtoursHolidays Limited. He joined Airtours from Aspro Travel & Inter European Airwayswhere he was Group Finance Director. The Group currently comprises: itravel2000.com itravel2000.com was founded in 1994 and is an online travel agent specialisingin the sale of travel and travel related products. Sales are made throughvarious internet web sites and a customer call centre located in Mississauga,Ontario. The greater proportion of itravel2000.com's business is winter-based,thus providing counter-seasonal revenue to the predominantly summer-basedrevenues of Travelzest's businesses in Europe. Holiday Express Holiday Express is one of the UK's leading on-line travel agents. It is atravel agent specialising in on-line travel fulfillment services and onlinetravel sales. Holiday Express' retail business (acting as travel agent),providing package holidays, charter flights and ski booking services, accountsfor the vast majority of its revenue and the remainder of its revenue isgenerated through acting as a tour operator. Holiday Express owns a number oftravel website domain names, including: - www.holiday.co.uk - www.flight.co.uk - www.discountholidays.com Fair's Fare Fair's Fare was established in 1995 and is the UK's leading firm of airfareanalysts, offering a unique travel planning service to both private and businessclients. The company seeks out the very best financial options, on all majorairlines, but primarily for long-haul travellers in the first and business classcabins of the world's leading airlines. VFB Holidays VFB Holidays is a long established, award winning tour operator, which providedholidays for approximately 24,000 passengers in its last financial year. VFB iscurrently contracted with the owners of approximately 350 holiday cottagesthroughout France for the summer season, and has booking arrangements with over150 hotels, most of which are privately owned and are located in rural orsemi-rural locations. VFB specialises in cottage holidays in France, but alsohas a number of other holiday programmes including: France a la Carte (hotelaccommodation), Corsica, Short Breaks, Escorted Tours and River Cruises. Best of Morocco Best of Morocco is a tour operator specialising in high quality, tailor-madeholidays to Morocco for individuals or small groups. It provides apersonalised service and its highly experienced and knowledgeable staff helpeach customer select the hotels / resorts from their large range which areappropriate for the customer's desired style of holiday. Best of Morocco is thepremier agent for the Marathon des Sables, a foot race that takes place inMorocco in April each year, covering some 230km. Best of Morocco provides thelargest contingent of runners for the race each year. Peng Travel Peng Travel was formed in 1971 to arrange naturist holidays for the UK market.Since then, it has grown to become Britain's biggest naturist tour operator. Ithas unrivalled experience of naturist areas worldwide and has selected only thebest. The range of naturist holidays offered is unmatched by any other Britishtour operator. Faraway Holidays Faraway Holidays was launched by Travelzest in August 2006. It offerstailor-made holidays to many of the world's top exotic destinations in the FarEast, Middle East, Indian Ocean, South Pacific and South America. Everydestination offered by Faraway Holidays will have been visited by at least onemember of the sales team, ensuring that customers receive informed andknowledgeable advice when planning their holiday. Tapestry Collection Travelzest acquired the assets of Tapestry Holidays and is soon to launch arevitalised brand, consisting of the very best of the Tapestry range. TheTapestry Collection will initially showcase the very best of Turkey and Cretefeaturing many of the most popular hotels, apartments and villas, together withsome exciting new properties. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange