TVZ.L Regulatory News (TVZ)

9 Aug 2007 07:00

Travelzest plc09 August 2007 Date: 9 August 2007On behalf of: Travelzest plc ("Travelzest" or the "Group")Embargoed until: 0700hrs Travelzest plcAcquisition of Captivating Cuba Travelzest plc, the British online travel group offering specialist travelprogrammes, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Captivating Cuba Limited("Captivating Cuba"), a specialist UK tour operator offering holidays to Cuba. Travelzest has agreed to pay £10,001 for Captivating Cuba and will invest in thebusiness to repay loans (£242,000) and provide additional working capital. Thebusiness reported a small loss in the last financial year and Travelzest hasalready identified a number of initiatives that it believes will result in theacquisition being earnings enhancing in 2008. Captivating Cuba offers tailor-made holidays and escorted tours. It has a teamof highly-experienced sales staff based in the UK, all of whom know Cuba indepth and are able to use their local knowledge and expertise to providedetailed advice on planning a holiday to Cuba. They are supported by a team ofrepresentatives and administration staff in Cuba. Commenting on the acquisition, Chris Mottershead, Travelzest's Chief Executive,said: "Cuba is a fascinating Caribbean island providing customers with the opportunityto visit Havana, a city with a unique atmosphere and character together withsome of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the world. While it has grown inpopularity for British travellers over the last few years, Canadians representthe largest number of visitors to, this, the largest of the Caribbean islands. "Captivating Cuba is a good example of a business with great potential. Italready sells over 3,500 holidays a year to the UK market and by linking withitravel2000.com, our Canadian operation, we will be able to exploit thisopportunity further and deliver strong organic growth over the coming years." Enquiries: Christopher MottersheadTravelzest plc 01442 874 322 Emma Kane / Samantha RobbinsRedleaf Communications Limited 020 7822 0200 Background information on Travelzest plc 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 the Travelzestconcept in April 2005, has extensive experience in the travel industry and inworking for both large and small organisations. He was managing director of TUIUK between 2001 and 2004 with responsibility for Thomson Holidays, Lunn Poly,Travelhouse and other travel businesses based in the UK. During that time, hesteered the company through one of the most difficult periods for travel andstill achieved record profits. Prior to this, he was President and CEO, NorthAmerican Leisure Group, Airtours plc. He originally joined Airtours in the UKin 1993 where his role initially was Finance Director of Airtours Holidays. Helater became Managing Director of Airtours Holidays in 1998. He joined Airtoursfrom Aspro Travel & Inter European Airways where 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. www.itravel2000.com Holiday Express Holiday Express is one of the UK's leading on-line travel businesses. Itspecialises in both on-line travel fulfillment services and online travel sales.Holiday Express' retail business (acting as travel agent), provides packageholidays, charter flights and ski booking services, accounts for the vastmajority of its revenue and the remainder of its revenue is generated throughacting as a tour operator. Holiday Express owns a number of travel websitedomain names, including: - www.holiday.co.uk - www.flight.co.uk 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. www.vfbholidays.com 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 it's 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. www.bestofmorocco.co.uk 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. www.pengtravel.co.uk 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. www.farawayholidays.co.uk Tapestry Collection Travelzest acquired the assets of Tapestry Holidays and has launched arevitalised brand consisting of the very best of the Tapestry range. TheTapestry Collection has initially showcased the very best of Turkey and Cretefeaturing many of the most popular hotels, apartments and villas from theoriginal Tapestry programme, together with some exciting new properties. www.thetapestrycollection.com The Wow House Company Wow House Limited, trading as The Wow House Company, is a specialist UKaccommodation provider offering an exclusive portfolio of large, prestigioushouses to rent for short breaks in the UK. The company also offers acomprehensive event planning service for corporate and special occasions. www.thewowhousecompany.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange