Capita Group, who entered the travel management market in 2005 with the acquisition of Lonsdale Travel, has added Harry Weeks Travel to its portfolio. The company has acquired the entire share capital of Harry Weeks for a cash consideration of ”21m ($41.3m), with a further ”12m ($23.6m) payable over the next four years subject to performance targets.
Lonsdale Travel managing director Simone Buckley (pictured) also told ABTN that the re-name of the company is planned to coincide with the start of the Business Travel Show. "Capita acquired Lonsdale 18 months ago as its first travel management company. We are re-branding as Capita Business Travel on 13 February." There are no such plans for Harry Weeks in the forseeable future.
Harry Weeks provides business travel software and solutions, including rail ticketing issue systems Evolvi and Travelpackonline. Managing director Grahame Weeks told ABTN of future developments to their distribution software: "2007 will see some important changes to the service we offer. Soon sleeper train reservations will be available, and by April we will offer carbon offsetting to all our customers. We will also be introducing access to national TOD (Ticket On Departure) booths so that agents and individuals can link in to the TOD network.
"E-ticketing is another service we intend to provide, although it will never be a complete solution in the industry because of the need for the rail operators to invest in technology to validate tickets."
”This acquisition provides us with an exciting new proposition in the rail travel market,” said Capita chief executive Paul Pindar. ”Last year we identified travel management as an area of major spend where we can add value to our public and private sector clients by offering effective solutions and outsourced services. With our growing portfolio of travel management services, we believe this will be an interesting market for us going forward.”