Blog homeMost press attention seems to be given to large M&A activity in the travel sector….. but what is it like at the smaller end of the market?
Today I was looking in a public database of UK web design companies for sale. I tend to look at the profiles because I am intrigued at what different companies have as turnover and order conversion - both statistics that I use to benchmark my own company. For example, today I found this gem of a quote on a listing for a London based web design agency for sale:
“The company currently writes approximately £2million in qualified web design proposals each year, winning approximately 12% of business. The vendor believes that the right partner could quite easily transform the conversion rate towards 40%-50% quite easily as they will be able to exploit opportunities that the vendor has not been able to (in many cases the company makes final supplier selection shortlists)”
Umm…. that is interesting. I know what my pitch conversion rate is…. hence this kind of statistic is gold dust to me.
Anyway, on my regular read, I found a company for sale that specialises in travel ecommerce and travel technology consulting.
Here is their summary listing:
Asking price: £485,000 (approximately 1 million USD)
Sales revenue: £800,000
Years established: 8
Employees: 14
Reasons for selling: The current majority shareholder is looking to exit the business
Website: Ellion.co.uk
Ellion have published case studies from work undertaken on behalf of Haven Holidays, Butlins, Bourne Leisure, Warner and HF holidays. They also have a suite of solutions devised for the travel sector including data warehousing (Trooper), a browser based parks information system (PINS) and a contact management system (PROCON).
The are also the company that devised the GoWander.com website - a social networking site for the Wanderlust travel magazine.
Go and read the business for sale profile yourself
Before anyone asks - I have no knowledge as to why Ellion maybe for sale and am not associated with them. I am writing about it here because most subscribers are in the travel or travel technology sector and would be interested. Maybe even one of my blog subscribers would be keen on buying them?
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Alex,
just stumbled across this, should probably check our company name more often. We completed a deal last week by selling 50.4% of our shares to Mike Hardcastle, a web company investor, who was originally involved with Friends Reunited. We sold at just below our asking price.
We wanted to grow the company and found it difficult to identify sources of finance that didnt mean high interest rates or a change in our direction. Mike brought investment and a commitment to our philosophy.
Hi Mark
Congratulations. That sounds great. Give me a shout if you want any of your travel web projects highlighted on this blog
Cheers. Alex