Inside Travel Group plans to 'triple size of business' within five years

Inside Travel Group co-founders have outlined plans to triple the size of the business in the next five years after revealing that the tour operator was "48 hours from folding" in 2022. 

Speaking at the annual general meeting of The Specialist Travel Association (Aito), Simon King and Alastair Donnelly said a rebrand and new destinations were now on the cards following a £20 million investment in the tour operator business last year.

The expansion plans, which would see the company grow from £65m revenue to more than £170m, are in stark contrast to the situation the company found itself in three years ago.

“We were 48 hours from folding,” recalled King, who said: “We were rescued by a small private equity fund called Blandford Capital and they came on board and essentially bought the business for £1 in 2022.

He added; “They threw us a 10% incentive but we [the founders] had to buy back in to acquire more of a stake. When they bought us the value of our company was essentially zero. We had £18,000 in the bank to cover four international branches; we were 48 hours from folding.”

He said the pair were “very, very grateful” for Blandford’s support, expertise and belief in the business over the next two years.

Donnelly said the company had now emerged from two to three years of mergers and acquisitions as well as its transformation into a B Corp.

The company is now part owned by private equity house Piper and the Japanese government. Piper, a B Corp and specialist investor in consumer brands, and Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s sovereign wealth fund focused on promoting Japanese culture globally, have partnered with the operator to invest in the group.

Donnelly said he felt optimistic about the future of the firm, which now employs 270 staff.

“Our growth plan will see us treble the size of our business [in terms of revenue] in the next four to five years. There will be new destinations under the Inside Asia brand and a rebrand in the summer,” he said.

New destinations in Asia are likely to be announced later this year.

Donnelly added: ““It’s nice to be back on the journey, and to see our team growing and the business having a lot of positive impact.”

Despite the situation the company found itself in in 2022, Donnelly credited the Covid pandemic with improving the business because it provided time to “take stock”, carry out a “deep strategy” and make new business decisions.

“I am not sure we would be anywhere like where we are today if it hadn’t been for Covid. We are very much a better business,” he said.

Donnelly and King – who met as history students at university and set up the Japan specialist in 2001 – also recalled how an Aito travel agency first encouraged them to join the association nearly 20 years ago.

“We said to Marco Polo Travel that we would love to sell our holidays through them and they said we should think about joining Aito to get some credibility with agents, so that was the motivating factor [for joining Aito] in 2006,” said King.