Gray Dawes Group, a UK-based travel management company (TMC), has acquired VCK Travel, a Netherlands-based TMC. According to an announcement from Gray Dawes, VCK is “a well-established powerhouse” in the European business travel market. The deal, said the announcement, will serve as a springboard for expansion into Europe.

The acquisition, according to Gray Dawes, brings its turnover to over $637 million annually (almost double the current figure) and increases employee numbers to almost 500. Suzanne Horner, CEO of Gray Dawes, said she has “long admired the business that Ed Berrevoets [VCK Travel’s managing director] and his team have built.” She said the challenges the industry faced in the past few years are “firmly behind us”; revenue now exceeds all pre-pandemic levels, and Gray Dawes continues to break profitability records.

The expansion into Europe, said Horner, represents the next step in the company’s global growth plan and “closes the circle on our unique service delivery strategy.” Off-hours, she said, “are no longer a thing for Gray Dawes, which is now always on — there for clients where they need us, when they need us.”