Special Report: Pebble Travel outlines plans to work with the trade. By Lucy Huxley
Pebble aims to help big investors fund small firms
Dedicated travel sector funder Pebble Travel Investors is looking to create a feeder channel for bigger investors in the sector.
Stewart Baird, chief executive
of Pebble Travel parent company Stone Ventures, said: “The market is polarised. There are hundreds of sub-million-pound businesses, and then some really big ones, and very little in between.” He said there are no more than
about 10-15 travel companies making between profits of between £500,000 and £1.5 million. “We’re looking to create more of those, so there is a feeder channel for the big guys,” he added.
“We’ve looked at 100 businesses, but we’re only looking to add one or two a year”
Baird, a former director of
Virgin Holidays, said big investors weren’t interested in smaller companies making less than a million, adding: “By the time they’d put in an expensive CEO, and possibly had a bad year, it was seen as too high-risk. “But we typically invest in the under-£1 million profit ones as we know the industry, so the risk
is much easier for us to control. The businesses we invest in get the support of me, of Ian Brooks, of John McEwan – people that have run travel businesses and understand the sector.” Baird said Pebble was selective
‘We want to be a one-stop-shop for cycling’
Pebble Travel is on the hunt to acquire a third cycling holidays brand as it plans to set up a one-stop shop for cycling holidays which will be bookable through the trade by the end of the year. The company recently acquired Cycling for Softies to
add to its Bspoke Cycling & Walking Tours brand. Steward Baird, chief executive of Pebble Travel
parent company Stone Ventures, said: “We now have a light, gourmet cycling option; one that’s a little bit more cycling but still staying in luxury properties; and we’re looking for a third leg to our stool, to attract the more serious cyclists. Is there a product out there for more of the Mamil (middle-aged man in Lycra) market to complete our cycling division?” Baird added: “These holidays make comfortable
margins, so we are able to pay proper commissions and we think this is the kind of new product agents want to sell, and are being asked for.” Pebble has also bought Italian specialist Long Travel,
which features lesser-known parts of the country, and is looking to buy other quality destination specialists.
PEDAL POWER: Pebble Travel is seeking to acquire a holidays brand aimed at the serious cyclist market
Stewart Baird: “It’s about
putting the time and effort into each business we buy”
it its choice of travel firms to back. “We’ve probably looked at
about 100 businesses in the last 12 months, but we’re only looking to add one or two a year. It’s about putting the time and effort into each business we buy – and
Baird expects agency owners to seek funding
The boss of Stone Ventures expects lots of agency owners to approach him in the coming months as “babyboomers look to retire”. Chief executive Stewart Baird
said: “If business owners have survived the last seven or eight years, then the chances are they don’t have the cash reserves that the CAA is going to want – whether that’s £30k, £40k or £50k. They just won’t have it, so if someone thinks they are going to have a problem, they need to start engaging with us now." Baird said this would be even
more likely in light of the new Atol regulations coming in, which he described as “a lot harsher”.
26 November 2015
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