Homeworking travel specialist Travel Counsellors has announced record-breaking financial results, as its corporate travel sales “performed significantly ahead” of pre-pandemic levels across all of its markets.
The Manchester-based firm said that total transaction value (TTV) including both business and leisure travel sales rose by 312 per cent year-on-year to reach £719.4 million for the financial year ending on 31 October 2022.
Travel Counsellors, which operates the Travel Counsellors for Business brand in the corporate market, added that revenue was up by 411 per cent year-on-year to reach £347.8 million in 2021-22.
The company, which is owned by private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, added that trading had continued to be “strong” during the first half of the current financial year between November 2022 and April 2023, with sales 64 per cent higher than during the comparable pre-pandemic period.
Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors, said: “2022 was a record year for Travel Counsellors as we delivered significant growth across the business against both the prior year and pre-pandemic levels. This outstanding momentum has continued into the first six months of the current financial year, as we have delivered consistently record-breaking months.
“This is testament to the relentless hard work, commitment and care shown by our Travel Counsellor business owners, who are dedicated to putting their customers first and ensuring they are there for them for every step of their journey.
“I’d also like to thank all our customers across both our leisure and corporate businesses who continue to place value in the trusted and caring service provided by their Travel Counsellor.”
Byrne added that the company was “accelerating rapidly” towards reaching the milestone of £1 billion in annual TTV “in the near future”.
Kieran Hartwell, managing director of corporate travel at Travel Counsellors, said its corporate business, which focuses entirely on the SME market, was set to achieve TTV of more than £220 million in 2023.
“We are trading around 30 per cent up on the same point in 2019, largely driven via strong client retention and a drive towards new client acquisition,” he added. “The SME sector drives the UK economy and greatly values personal service delivery and concierge like travel management support to help power their businesses as they themselves seek to expand, grow and scale on an international basis.”
Hartwell added that there had been a “significant uptick” in the recruitment of corporate specialists at Travel Counsellors, with numbers up by 55 per cent on 2019. Many of these homeworking agents work together as “teams” to support SME clients.
“Our focus for the next few years is on greatly enhancing the user experience on our platform for both corporate travel entrepreneurs and SME clients, and investing in business development to capitalise on the £2 billion-plus SME corporate travel sector in the UK,” said Hartwell.