Skift Take
Package holidays are still popular across much of Europe, and companies like Sunweb think there are plenty of opportunities for growth. Buying up rival tour operators helps with scale, as does the struggles of a competitor like Thomas Cook.
For years TUI and Thomas Cook have dominated the European package holiday market with their numerous brands spread across multiple countries, but a fast-growing competitor backed by private equity now has both in its sights.
Sunweb Group, which has its main offices in the Rotterdam and Zürich, was bought in February by private equity firm Triton for an undisclosed sum. Then with the backing of Triton, in June it agreed to buy the tour operating activities of Corendon Holiday Group, one of its chief rivals in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Together these developments have created a potential new tour operating powerhouse in Europe, albeit one that still has some way to go before it catches up with TUI and Thomas Cook.
The combined turnover of Sunweb and Corendon is about $1.3 billion — and remember Sunweb isn’t buying all of Corendon. In contrast, Thomas Cook reported turnover of $12.5 billion last year, and market leader TUI generated $22.7 billion.
It’s a significant difference, but it doesn't sound like Triton and Sunweb are done yet. Thomas Cook confirmed in May that Triton had made an approach for
