We are delighted to announce our investment in Martin Randall Travel, the UK’s leading small group cultural tours brand focused on the arts.
Founded in 1988 by Martin Randall, it has become the most influential organisation in the field of cultural travel, offering an unequalled range of tours and events focusing on art, architecture, music, archaeology, history, gardens and gastronomy. The business will achieve sales of £17m in 2024.
The brand operates 169 culturally rich tours for groups of up to 22 clients that last 4-16 days across six different continents, but with a strong focus on Europe which accounts for 80% of revenue. Two of the most popular tours are ‘Civilisations of Sicily’ and ‘Samarkand and Silk Road Cities’.
Expert speakers – academics, curators, writers, broadcasters and researchers – are a key ingredient in the tours and events, accompanying clients for the whole tour. This, alongside the meticulous planning that provides the highest quality experience, including access to venues that are not generally open to the public, accounts for the fact that Martin Randall Travel has an industry-leading client satisfaction Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 81.
The brand is especially well-known for its own music events, Martin Randall Festivals, which present a sequence of concerts by international artists in appropriate historic buildings. In 2024, festivals include the Salzburg String Quartet Festival, Mozart Along the Danube, The Divine Office (a choral festival in Oxford) and Opera in Sicily. Martin Randall Travel run 20 tours in the UK, including Chamber Music weekends and historical symposia. In addition, they produce increasingly popular webinars to enable customers to listen to expert lecturers and speakers on a wide range of topics from their homes.
The brand is popular with travellers aged 55+, the fastest-growing age group in the UK. The majority of clients come from the UK, with a growing number from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The brand particularly appeals to solo travellers who make up 60% of clients. Growth is driven by a loyal community, with an impressive 80% of clients booking two or more trips and 43% of people discovering the brand via word of mouth.
Our investment will back the current CEO, Fiona Charrington. She is joined by Peter Liney as Chair, who was previously CEO of Great Rail Journeys and is on the board of trustees of English Heritage. Martin Randall continues to be a shareholder in the business.
The investment will help the business expand its position as the leader in small group tours focused on the arts while building brand awareness across the UK, the US and Australia.
This is the fourth investment from Fund VII, and the second in travel following our £7m investment into small group tour brand Rabbie’s in June 2022. We also invested £8m in multi-award-winning The Thinking Traveller in November 2020.
Fiona Charrington, CEO of Martin Randall Travel, said: ‘We are delighted to have Piper as our partners for the next stage of growth. There is no doubt that they have a deep understanding of what makes Martin Randall Travel so special and are focused on protecting the DNA of the brand going forward. This investment means that more people will be able to access our tours and that we can continue to expand our brilliant team to support our growth.’
Martin Randall commented: ‘I have been planning my retirement for some time and am extremely proud of the work Fiona and the team at Martin Randall have done to make this possible. The business is in safe hands. I know that the team will continue to provide our customers with cultural tours of the highest quality alongside our expert lecturers, excellent tour managers and partners.’
Dan Stern, who led the deal, said: ‘We are very excited to be backing the Martin Randall Travel team for the next stage of growth. Our consumer insight work shows that people are more eager than ever to invest in their interests by seeing new countries and experiencing new cultures. As a thought leader unrivalled in its satisfaction levels among clients, Martin Randall Travel is exceptionally well placed to benefit from this pent-up demand.’