Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd.

1906–2000

Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. oversees one of Europe's top five travel and tour groups. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, the company is particularly strong in both its domestic and U.K. markets, but is also present throughout Europe, especially in Scandinavia, with a rising presence in the United States and Asian markets. Kuoni Travel operates in three primary areas of business: Leisure Travel, which accounts for more than 85 percent of the company's sales; Business Travel, through its BTI unit, which handles travel coordination activities for the small and mid-sized and large-scale corporation markets; and Incoming Services, which provides travel destination services, such as touring and sightseeing packages. The company markets it high-end tours and travel packages under the Kuoni name. Discount travel packages are offered under the Helvetica brand name. Switzerland remains the company's single largest market, representing slightly less than one-third of its total sales. The U.K. and North American markets together provide less than one-third of sales. The European continent, including Scandinavia, added another roughly 30 percent to Kuoni's total sales, which topped SFr 4 billion in 2000. Kuoni has been stepping up the pace of its acquisitions at the turn of the century. After being thwarted in its attempt to merge with the United Kingdom's First Choice Holidays Plc, which would have helped the company create a counterweight to Europe's market-leading Preussag-Thomson alliance announced in early 2000, Kuoni has changed direction, targeting the Scandinavian, Indian, and North American markets for its future growth. Listed on the Swiss stock exchange, Kuoni is led by Chairman Daniel Affolter and President and CEO Hans Lerch.

Early Twentieth-Century Travel Pioneer

A native of Chur, Switzerland, Alfred Kuoni moved to Zurich to open a travel agency in 1906. If the company's name--Travel Bureau--was not all that original, Kuoni quickly established itself as a pioneer in exotic travel destinations. One of the company's first organized tour packages took Swiss citizens on a guided tour to far-off Egypt. In 1925, Kuoni reincorporated as a joint-stock company, with shares remaining within the Kuoni family. Through the years leading up to World War II, Kuoni expanded from its original location to include a number of sales offices throughout Switzerland. Despite its success in its home market, the company recognized early on that Switzerland was too small for its growing ambitions. The company also opened its first international office, in Nice, in the south of France. Further international moves were thwarted by the buildup to and outbreak of World War II.

Kuoni's international expansion began almost immediately after the end of the war. In 1948, the company opened its first international subsidiaries, in Italy and France. Kuoni also continued to pioneer new and exotic travel destinations, such as the organization of the first charter flights to Africa. In 1957, the Kuoni family established the Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation under which to group their holding; much later, with Kuoni's public listing, the foundation would became the company's primary shareholder.

Kuoni began looking farther afield in the 1960s. In 1963, the company made its first entry into the Asian markets with the opening of a branch office in Japan. Two years later, Kuoni entered what was later to become one of its most important single markets when it acquired the United Kingdom's Challis & Benson Ltd. The importance of the U.K. market to Kuoni was seen at the beginning of the 1970s when the company changed its name--and its U.K. operations' name--to Kuoni Travel Ltd.

Louis, Missouri; the Intrav acquisition, which cost Kuoni $115 million, gave it a strong opening into the booming U.S.

1973–1992

The company's listing on the Swiss stock exchange provided fuel for new growth, while opening up the company's shares to new partners, including SwissAir, which built up a 30 percent share in Kuoni. The public listing enabled the company to step up its international growth. After opening a subsidiary in Austria at the beginning of the decade, Kuoni now launched subsidiaries in Germany and Spain, both in 1973, and a subsidiary in Greece the following year. The year 1974 also saw Kuoni step up its position in the U.K. market, when it acquired Houlders World Holidays, based in England.

While building up its international network, Kuoni also was launching new products. In 1977, the company began marketing its first around-the-world tour. In the 1980s, Kuoni began to acquire properties in many of its most popular destinations, adding a number of hotels, including the Hawksbill Beach Hotel in Antigua in 1981 and the Discovery Bay Beach Hotel in Barbados, bought in 1984. In 1986, Kuoni became the first tour operator to offer around-the-world charter flights on the Concorde supersonic jet. Although this latter product catered to the company's strong high-end and high-margin clientele, Kuoni also launched a new brand name, Helvetica, to encompass its discount tour and travel operations.

Takeover Target in the 1990s

The worldwide travel industry remained highly fragmented in the 1990s, with numerous small-scale operators competing against a smaller number of quickly growing industry heavyweights. Kuoni, which had already captured the lead in the Swiss market, was determined to maintain a leadership position as the travel industry headed into a drawn-out consolidation drive leading up to the turn of the century. The company acquired Reiseburo NUR Neckermann in 1987, boosting its position in the Austrian market. Three years later, the company regrouped its Austrian activities, launching the NUR Neckermann Reisen AG joint venture with Germany's Neckermann Touristic. Kuoni's part of the joint venture remained at 49 percent.

Back home, the company continued to consolidate its dominance of the Swiss market, acquiring Privat Safaris, the country's leading operator of tours to eastern Africa, and Reiseburo Popularis, which combined retail offices with direct sales operations marketing discount tour and travel packages. Yet Kuoni's strong position in the Swiss market and its growing share internationally soon led it to become the target of a takeover attempt. The sale of SwissAir's 30 percent holding created the opening for Germany's Krauthof AG department store group to acquire a 50.1 percent majority of Kuoni in 1992.

1995–1999

Kuoni, through the Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation, nonetheless retained majority control of the company's voting rights--which provided the leverage to the resolution of the takeover attempt. In 1995, the Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation bought out Krauthof's stake in the company. The company then changed its name to Kuoni Travel Holding, a move that also reflected a new diversification drive: in 1995 the company acquired Danzas Reisen AG, a Switzerland-based specialist in business travel services. The Danzas acquisition led Kuoni to create a dedicated business travel unit. The company also acquired retailer Kewi Reisen, while integrating its majority share of Railtour Suiss SA, acquired the year before.

Industry Consolidator for the 21st Century

With its independence assured, Kuoni launched its own acquisition drive in the late 1990s. In 1996, Kuoni added France's Voice SA, and Scanditours, focused on the Nordic region. The company moved into The Netherlands with the acquisition of Special Traffic that same year. Kuoni also looked to the potentially huge market of India for the first time, acquiring SOTC Holiday Tours, which provided the basis for its Kuoni India Ltd. subsidiary. Two other acquisitions completed the company's busy years, those of Rotunda Tours, expanding Kuoni into South Africa, and CIS Intersport, a Swiss company catering to the growing demand for sports-oriented holiday packages. In 1996, also, the company's Edelweiss Air launched its charter flight operations.

Kuoni's expansion campaign continued strongly through the end of the century, including the launch of the P & O Travel Ltd. joint venture with Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, based in Hong Kong, with offices in Bangkok and Singapore. The 1997 joint venture strengthened Kuoni's position in the Asian market, which, despite the austere economic climate in the region at the end of the decade, promised to become one of the world's stronger holiday markets. Closer to home, Kuoni continued lining up acquisitions, especially Voyages Jules Verne, a U.K. upscale tour operator, and Switzerland's Manta Reisen, which specialized in scuba and other deep-sea holidays. The company also acquired German business travel specialist Euro Lloyd Reisenburo, which it combined with its other German operations into the new subsidiary BTI Euro Lloyd, one of that market's top five business travel companies. Also in 1998, Kuoni launched a joint venture with Italy's Gastaldi Tours.

The next year saw Kuoni face a major setback. At the beginning of 1999, the company announced its agreement to merge with the United Kingdom's number three travel operator, First Choice Holidays. The merger, agreed to by both sides, was thwarted by a surprise takeover attempt from rival U.K. operator Airtours Plc, which offered a higher per-share price. When the majority of First Choice's shareholders chose to back the Airtours offer--which itself was blocked by the European monopolies commission--Kuoni pulled out of the merger talks.

1999–2001

The First Choice merger might have allowed Kuoni to become not only a major player in the U.K. travel market but to boost its position to the top ranks in all of Europe. After the collapse of the merger, however, Kuoni redirected its strategy to other markets. Three markets in particular were to receive its attention: the United States, Scandinavia, and India. In 1999, Kuoni acquired upscale travel company Intrav, based in St. Louis, Missouri; the Intrav acquisition, which cost Kuoni $115 million, gave it a strong opening into the booming U.S. market for luxury vacations. The following year, the company acquired T Pro, an incoming services specialist based in New York and the number three incoming services provider to the U.S. market.

The year 2000 saw Kuoni not only strengthen its hold on the Swiss travel market--taking a 49 percent share in ITV, Switzerland's third largest tour group and subsidiary of Germany's Preussag--but also expand its presence in its new target markets of Scandinavia and India. The first was served by the acquisition of 49 percent of Apollo Resor, based in Stockholm, Sweden, and then boosted by the acquisition of Denmark's Dane Tours. In March 2001, the company announced its decision to restructure most of its Scandinavian holdings into a single subsidiary.

On the Indian subcontinent, which represented one of the world's single largest potential markets, the company formed a cooperation agreement with that country's Tata conglomerate at the beginning of 2000. That year the company also acquired India's travel leader, Sita Travel, which was then merged into the company's Kuoni Travel subsidiary. Kuoni was now the leading travel group in India. As the company entered the new century, it promised to continue its acquisition drive to reinforce its new geographic objectives. To fuel its continued expansion, Kuoni performed a ten-for-one stock split, raising another SFr 144 million.