Expanding travel and leisure company Minoan Group is to gain a £500,000 grant to help set up a new head office in Glasgow.
A contract has been signed with Scottish Enterprise for the investment which will create more than 50 new jobs in the city over three years.
It will be used to reimburse Minoan for certain capital expenditure and salary costs and will be payable by instalments once specific milestones have been met.
The group said: “Minoan has now established its first travel and leisure cluster in Scotland, which has reached critical mass, through the completion of several acquisitions and trade agreements.
“The new head office will support Minoan's strategy of becoming an industry leading travel business through the creation of clusters of regional travel businesses. As previously stated, the aim is to create a substantial, profitable, distribution led travel business.”
The group agreed to take over the management of Scottish agency Stewart Travel Centre in June after acquiring Ayr-based King World Travel in March. A franchise deal with web-based cruise agency Cruise118 was struck in April. It also purchased John Semple Travel in September.
Minoan chairman Christopher Egleton said: “We continue to progress in building a travel business of substance.
“Whilst the majority of our customers will be from the rest of the UK, Glasgow is a first class city to host our head office function.
“There is a strong labour pool, the city infrastructure lends itself to easy access to staff and communications for our senior team are excellent for the rest of the UK and around the world.
“The costs of operation in Scotland are less than in many parts of the UK and we anticipate creating a substantial number of job opportunities over the next three years.”
Scottish enterprise minister Fergus Ewing said: “This government is working hard to increase sustainable economic growth across Scotland, and that is why I am delighted the Minoan Group has chosen to establish its headquarters in Glasgow.
“This company has ambitious plans to expand within the UK and overseas tourism sectors and it's exciting that they are doing that from a Scottish base, showing that they have faith in the local workforce to help them achieve their aims.
“This venture will provide a boost to the local economy by creating up to 52 new jobs. It will also have a role in helping this government meet its ambitious target to create sustainable economic growth for Scotland.”
Click here to view original article by Travel Weekly, Thursday 10th November, 2011
