Lotus Group

Lotus Group
DialAFlight, Supertravel, Lotus Business Travel
Industry Travel
Founded London, UK (1980 (1980))
Founder Peter Stephens
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 London, Croydon, Maidstone, Manchester
Area served
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Key people
 Peter Stephens, Christine Burrowes, John Phelps and George Ross
Products Flights and holidays
Total assets £131,981,949
Owner Peter Stephens and Christine Burrowes
Number of employees
 437
Website Lotusgroup.co.uk

The Lotus Group is a British travel company that owns DialaFlight, Supertravel, and Lotus Business Travel. The company organises the travel arrangements, including flights, hotels, tours and car rental, for almost half a million people a year.[1]

Operations

DialaFlight, whose customers book flights by telephone, generates 80% of The Lotus Group sales; its other companies include Supertravel, which provides luxury ski and golf holidays, and Lotus Business Travel, which handles business travel arrangements for SMEs.[1][2] The company's business model for corporate travel involves offering clients discounted prices for making immediate payment, rather than buying tickets on credit.[3] The group started using a new IT system in 2002 which helped profits grow 51% in a year, from £3.3m in 2000 to £11.5m in 2003.[4] In December, 2013 the Lotus Group made the '1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain' list of the UK’s most exciting small and medium-sized companies, drawn up by the London Stock Exchange.[5][6] The Lotus Group has also made the Profit Track 100 list of Britain's top 100 private companies with the fastest-growing profits three times, and the Top Track 250 list of Britain's leading mid-market private companies with the biggest sales seven times.[7] Both these league tables are published by Fast Track, a network of the UK's top-performing private companies, in association with The Sunday Times. In 2011 the company set up its own charity, Make My Day Better, which supports a number of projects in third world countries, plus educational and medical research.[8][9] This includes donating to, and arranging air links for, UK disaster response charity ShelterBox.[10]

Company founders

The company was founded in 1980 and is still run by two of the original founder members Peter Stephens and Christine Burrowes who own a stake of 75% and 25% respectively. Stephens, who used to work as sub-editor on the Kent Evening Post newspaper,[3] was named as 79th in the Management Today list of Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2006,[11] and The Sunday Times list of the Richest People in Travel in 2012.[12]

The company in the media

DialAFlight entered legal proceedings against a number of travel review sites in 2009, after libellous comments appeared on those sites.[13] In August 2013, the company was one of a number that boycotted advertising on the social-networking website ASKfm after 14-year-old Hannah Smith killed herself after being bullied by users of the site.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 2011 Top Track 250 Rank: 96 Lotus Group Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine. fasttrack.co.uk
  2. ↑ 2003 Profit Track 100 Rank: 21 Lotus Group Archived 2015-02-15 at the Wayback Machine., fasttrack.co.uk
  3. 1 2 Sturgess, Trevor (September 02 2005) Cutting the cost of business travel kentonline.co.uk
  4. ↑ 2005 Profit Track 100 Rank: 80 Lotus Group Archived 2015-02-15 at the Wayback Machine. fasttrack.co.uk
  5. ↑ Browning, Richard (13 December 2013) Revealed: The UK's 1,000 most exciting and inspirational companies thisismoney.co.uk
  6. ↑ 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain - Lotus Group lseg.com
  7. ↑ Fast Track - The Lotus Group fasttrack.co.uk
  8. ↑ Charity Commission - Make My Day Better charitycommission.gov.uk
  9. ↑ Make My Day Better website
  10. ↑ 29 October 2013 DialAFlight makes ShelterBox’s day better with £50,000 gift shelterbox.org
  11. ↑ Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2006: The league table, 16 January 2006, managementtoday.co.uk
  12. ↑ Richest in travel revealed by Sunday Times list 30 April 2012, travelweekly.co.uk
  13. ↑ Schaal, Dennis and May, Kevin (June 26, 2009) DialAFlight in legal wrangle with TripAdvisor and Microsoft travolution.co.uk
  14. ↑ Evans, Martin (08 August, 2013) Advertisers boycott ASKfm website after teen suicide
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