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VCK Travel continues as global TMC after acquisition by Gray Dawes Travel

A new year and a new future. Now more than ever, we have reason to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year. We’re starting this new year off right. We would like to share the news with you that the sale of VCK Travel to Gray Dawes Travel was completed on January 3, 2024.

Why this acquisition?

Gray Dawes Travel, part of the Gray Dawes Group, is the UK’s longest established travel management company. With offices in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and now the Netherlands, the annual turnover exceeds €500 million. Gray Dawes is considered one of the largest business travel management companies in Europe. We are enthusiastic about the acquisition by this renowned company, because it will allow us to provide you with even better assistance worldwide and because it will enable us to better meet the requirements for international travel management.

VCK Travel has developed into a leading Travel Management Company (TMC) in the Dutch and European markets. We have always emphasized on providing excellent services using advanced technologies.

More and more international customers are asking us to offer services in other countries, including in the United Kingdom, with one contract and with one uniform computer system. It has therefore been decided to seek cooperation with a strategic TMC, which focuses on the customer and employee, so that we can operate more internationally. It was important to us to ensure that you can continue to count on the excellent service you have come to expect from us. Gray Dawes fits this description well. Gray Dawes’ global expansion and growth ambitions also make this a suitable partnership.

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in our functioning. The complexity of our industry and the high costs of automation, among other things, make the search for economies of scale a logical step. Gray Dawes has an advanced collaboration with many key technology partners that provide benefits to both VCK Travel and our valued customers.

As you know, we place great value on the Personal Touch. This is also in Gray Dawes’ DNA. The global integration with Gray Dawes will better enable 24×7 services and make this a seamless experience for our customers. International customers can consolidate their data and receive management reports for all their locations, worldwide. Communication with our foreign offices becomes easier and more efficient. With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, we now have truly global coverage.

Suzanne Horner, Gray Dawes Group CEO

Suzanne Horner, CEO of the Gray Dawes Group: “I have long admired the company that Ed Berrevoets and his team have built. This latest chapter in our development – ​​the fourteenth acquisition of Gray Dawes to date – marks an exciting time for us and our customers.”

Fergus Glenapp, Chairman of Gray Dawes: “We are delighted to have acquired a company with the reputation and history of VCK Travel. It offers us an exceptional European platform to further expand our activities worldwide.”

Fergus Glenapp, voorzitter van Gray Dawes
Ed Berrevoets

Ed Berrevoets, Managing Director of VCK Travel: “There are so many similarities between both companies, which makes this partnership a very natural fit. By becoming part of the Gray Dawes Group we will be able to leverage the strengths of both companies to deliver enhanced, global capabilities to both our workforce and our customers.”

Who is Gray Dawes?

Gray Dawes Travel was founded in 1927 and became the second TMC in the world to receive an IATA license in 1946. The company is owned by the Inchcape family and is well funded and a profitable business. Gray Dawes, like us, is fully accessible 365 days a year. With its global presence following the “follow the sun” principle, this acquisition provides Gray Dawes with 24-hour accessibility and is fully capable of responding to situations and challenges worldwide, providing the highest level of support and protection for your travelers. Gray Dawes Travel has all the necessary technological options to fully support your contract. They will use their size and experience with alternative technologies, in which they are market leaders, to provide you with excellent service both online and offline. Gray Dawes is a key member of the Business Travel Association (BTA), the trade association for travel management companies in the UK. Gray Dawes CEO Suzanne Horner is a member of the BTA board and its current chair – the BTA’s first female chair, in fact. Suzanne was also recently named one of the most influential people in the industry in 2023 by Business Travel News Europe (BTN)! The company is known for providing exceptional service and boasts a 97% customer retention rate. In 2021, Gray Dawes was named Travel Partner of the Year in the European TMC category at the prestigious Business Travel Awards. For more information about Gray Dawes Travel and the wider Gray Dawes Group, visit their websites at https://www.gdg.travel  en https://graydawes.org.

What can you expect now?

For the short to medium term it is really business as usual. Together with Gray Dawes we will ensure a smooth transition to their systems and processes to further improve the already good service you receive from VCK Travel. All VCK Travel staff will continue to work from their current location. So you can count on the same teams supporting your account. Gray Dawes wants to use VCK Travel as a springboard for further expansion on the European continent. VCK Travel’s position on the Dutch market is attractive and strengthens their knowledge and provides access to the European market. This therefore offers new growth opportunities for VCK Travel. The VCK Travel brand will eventually disappear and our services will continue as Gray Dawes Travel, but only when the new systems have been implemented and you have experienced the full operational benefits. In the intervening period, both brands will coexist: VCK Travel – a Gray Dawes Group company. This co-branding will appear on all future correspondence, from quotes, itineraries and booking confirmations to invoicing and emails. Our acquisition by Gray Dawes marks a new chapter in the proud history of VCK Travel and promises great times for our customers. There are so many similarities between both companies, which makes this partnership a very natural fit. As you know, we pride ourselves on providing the very best service, with the Personal Touch. That is a philosophy that we share with Gray Dawes. Becoming part of the Gray Dawes Group makes us even stronger and able to deliver better global options for you, your travelers and your business. Gray Dawes’ expansion into Europe is incredibly exciting. It is the next step in their global growth plan and completes the circle in their unique service strategy of which we are now a part. For example, ‘out of hours’ simply no longer applies to Gray Dawes; as a new part of Gray Dawes we are ALWAYS AVAILABLE to our customers, wherever and whenever they need assistance. And with a shared technology platform across the Gray Dawes operation, their customers enjoy seamless personalized service. With the follow the sun principle you can now reach us from Great Britain via America and Australia and now also in Europe; the four core hubs of the new Gray Dawes’ global reach. If you have any comments or questions about the acquisition, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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