Bibby Travel announced the acquisition of GAC Travel Limited with effect from March 1, 2014. The deal will see GAC Travel integrated within Bibby Travel, a trading division of Bibby Ship Management Ltd in western Europe.
Ed Rimmer, Chief Executive Officer, Bibby Ship Management Group, said, “[The deal] underlines our commitment to both the marine and business travel markets both at a large corporate and at an SME level. We would like to welcome Joanne Vicente, General Manager of GAC Travel and her team onboard and look forward to working with them in the months ahead.”
GAC Travel General Manager Joanne Vicente said, GAC Travel and Bibby Ship Management “will now be able to concentrate strongly on the corporate and conference sectors as well as the important marine and offshore crew travel markets. Bibby Travel will continue operating from the GAC UK Ltd premises in Stockton on Tees.”
Ivo Verheyen, GAC Group Vice President, Europe, added, "The sale of GAC Travel is part of GAC UK's long term strategy to focus on its core Shipping and Logistics capabilities, especially in the energy sector.”
The acquisition now means that Bibby Travel has offices in Aberdeen, Liverpool, Isle of Man, Mumbai and Teesside and expands the resources available with 21 new staff being welcomed to the business.
Bibby Travel’s parent company, Bibby Ship Management, recently acquired another business, Murray Fenton (India) Surveyors Limited, which saw India’s service offering expand into marine, cargo and offshore surveying including marine audit services. Accoding to the company, both acquisitions were a strategic move to diversify the business away from a traditional technical management company as they strive to become a complete marine services business.
Alongside these acquisitions Bibby Ship Management has recently spent $2 million on new simulator equipment for training centers in the Ukraine and India, as well as establishing a new senior management team tasked with taking the business forward.