Travelbrands President Frank DeMarinis.
Red Label Vacations Inc., operator of redtag.ca, itravel2000.com, The Travel Experts and TravelBrands, has reached a deal to be acquired by a subsidiary of H.I.S. Group, a global travel services company based in Japan.
H.I.S. Group already has a significant foothold in the Canadian market. It acquired specialty travel company Merit Travel Group in December 2016. Merit Travel serves more than 350,000 Canadian travellers each year across brands including Merit Travel, Travelcuts, MeritBiz, Merit Loyalty, CruiseExperts Travel and Exclusive Tours.
Under the terms of the agreement, Red Label Vacations will continue to operate as an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of H.I.S. Completion of the transaction is subject to closing conditions, including approval by the Canadian Competition Bureau. Subject to the satisfaction of all necessary conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first calendar quarter of 2019.
Travelbrands is the corporate name for a group of companies purchased by brothers Frank, Joe and Enzo DeMarinis in 2013.
“It is a very exciting day for our company as this marks the launch of our next phase of growth,” the DeMarinis brothers said in a statement.
“H.I.S. is committed to supporting our continued growth at home in Canada as well as internationally. We expect that H.I.S.’s support will enable us to enhance our service offerings on both the wholesale and retail fronts and accelerate our growth objectives. We look forward to a very bright future.”
Hideo Hatano, Executive Officer, Global Business Development Division, H.I.S. Co. Ltd., added:
"The acquisition of Red Label Vacations is in keeping with our ambitious expansion plan in North America and we look forward to building upon Red Label Vacation’s branding and experience in the Canadian market space to further service the North American market."
