Watchdog reviewing Hays Travel acquisitions

INDEPENDENT North East holiday company Hays Travel has been ordered to pause the integration of two recent acquisitions by the competition watchdog.

- COREENA FORD Business writer [e-mail]

The Sunderland company announced two significant deals in October: the addition of Shropshire-based Polka Dot and Leicester-based The Independent Travel Company Limited, which trades as Millington Travel.

Polka Dot added 15 branches across the North West, Midlands and North Wales to the Hays stable, and a week later the deal struck for Millington brought an additional 14 branches across the Midlands employing 77 staff.

Following the deals, Hays said that the branches of both businesses will continue to trade under their original brand names, and that all jobs are safe. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now served initial enforcement orders on Hays Travel Limited, Polka Dot Travel Limited and The Independent Travel Company Limited, as it “has reasonable grounds for suspecting” that Hays Travel and the two newly-acquired firms “have ceased to be distinct”, and whether the acquisitions represent a wider competition concern.