NST Travel Group plc is Europe’s leading educational and group tour operator. The Company was formed on 1 January 1998 following a merger between NST Limited and ETS Travel Limited.

NST was founded in 1967 as Northern Schools Travel by Vin Craven, a former Maths teacher from Millfield High School in Thornton, Lancashire. The Company developed over its first 17 years to a position whereby it was well known and respected as a specialist business arranging coach tours for schools in the north of England, with a turnover of £1,000,000. Vin Craven’s sons, John and David, joined in 1979 and 1982 respectively.

The Company name was changed to NST in 1983 and from 1984 the Company developed rapidly through organic growth. By 1992 it was one of the UK’s leading school travel companies with a turnover of approximately £5,000,000.

Since 1992 the Company has expanded dramatically so that it now offers a much wider range of travel opportunities to school, college and also adult groups.

ETS Travel was created in 1992 to offer air tours and sports tours to schools to complement the educational coach tours operated by NST. An approach was made to secure the services of Mark Sanders as Managing Director of ETS Travel. He had previously worked for School Travel Service of Enfield for 15 years (the last 6 as Managing Director) and had particular experience of the target markets. David and John Craven were also Directors of ETS Travel and all 3 Directors were equal shareholders.

In 1993 NST purchased StudyLink a company specialising in coach tours for university and college groups.

The safety of our clients has always been of paramount importance so in 1993 it was decided to document our existing procedures and in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) a School Tour Operators’ Safety Management System was developed. Since its formal launch, the Safety Management System has been constantly amended and upgraded to improve safety standards for our clients still further. It continues to have a very positive effect on safety standards in school travel and is also proving to be an important source of reassurance to parents and teachers alike.

In December 1994 NST acquired SETA, a leading Scottish school travel company based in Glasgow.

In July 1995 NST established a Music Tours Division which has consistently performed ahead of expectations and is now the leading operator in its field

In September 1995 ETS created a specialist division, ETS StudyLink, to operate air tours for university and college groups to complement the coach tours operated by NST StudyLink.

To further expand their range of sports tours ETS Travel acquired a specialist sports travel company, Sportsclass, in 1996 and created a separate division, ETS Sportsclass.

NST had traded successfully in Northern Ireland since 1986 and it seemed logical to target the market in the Republic of Ireland. Due to currency, legal and regulatory differences, it was decided to set up a separate company. NST Limited was established in Dublin in 1996 and is now the major player in the school and group market in the whole of Ireland. Whilst NST in Ireland is a separate legal entity from the NST Travel Group plc, the 2 Companies work as associates with many core functions undertaken centrally on behalf of both Companies.

In January 1997 NST established an Adventure Division and in March 1997 completed the purchase of Winmarleigh Hall, a 29,000 square foot Victorian Mansion set in 50 acres of woods and parkland just south of Lancaster, from where a very successful combined Outdoor Activities and ICT programme is operated.

By December 1997 NST had a turnover of approximately £9,000,000 and employed 50 staff whilst ETS had a turnover of £6,000,000 and employed 28 staff. Together they had achieved a dominant position in the UK educational travel market in general and many of the trading divisions were also leaders in their particular niche markets. The combined volumes of the 2 Companies also made them Europe’s leading educational tour operator.

The decision to formally merge the 2 Companies was taken for the following reasons:-

1. To eliminate several areas of duplication, mainly concerning products and personnel.
2. Further to eliminating duplication it was felt that one company could achieve synergetic benefits more easily and in particular with respect to purchasing, contracting, financial and regulatory charges.
3. To facilitate the cross marketing of all products.
4. To establish the Company as clear market leader in the UK educational travel market.

The decision to incorporate as a plc was taken for 2 main reasons:-

1. To raise the profile of the Company with its suppliers, clients and potential clients.
2. To enable the Company to consider a flotation at some future stage, both as a means of raising additional capital to further expand the business and also as a means of retaining and motivating the senior management team and indeed all the staff.

Since the merger 4 new divisions have been established.

In April 1998 The Group Travel Company was created to cater for adult group tours as the Company was receiving an increasing level of demand from current clients of the Company wishing to travel with their friends and colleagues to short haul destinations which they had visited with their students. This division officially commenced trading in September 1998.

A similar rationale led to the creation of Tours for Churches in May 1998. This is an extremely specialist division dealing solely with religious groups. This division also officially commenced trading in September 1998.

In addition, the Adventure Division has continued to expand. A campsite in the Ardèche was purchased in May 1998 which opened in April 1999 and a Chateau in Northern France was purchased in January 1999 which opened in February 2000. In view of the fact that the Chateau offers non activity type tours the name of the Division was changed to Properties and Adventure was positioned as a sub division of Properties.

In May 2000 the Company was ranked as the 41st fastest growing company in the UK by Dun and Bradstreet from their database of over 2 million companies.

In September 2001 the decision was made to merge NST StudyLink and ETS StudyLink creating one brand, based in Cambridge and named simply StudyLink which is focused solely on the needs of the University and College group market. This division is now the UK’s largest operator in this particular niche market. This move also enabled NST Tours to focus on its core market of educational tours for schools.

In December 2001 the Company acquired the forward bookings of Top Class Travel, its main competitor in the schools market in Scotland following their collapse.

From 2000 to 2003 the Company invested heavily in the development of its infrastructure with the creation of 4 new support departments, HR, IT, Marketing and Corporate Governance. Whilst all of these developments involved considerable management time and cost they were all deemed necessary to either assist in generating additional business or to ensure that the Company is well equipped to handle a significant increase in business – or both.

In January 2003 the Company launched its first formal long term plan which clearly stated what we want to achieve over the next 5 years and how we would achieve it. In essence this plan explained that after a period of rapid development over the last 10 years when we expanded from having one division to a position where we had 7 divisions in the UK, plus a separate Company in Ireland, we had an excellent and complementary product range and a very solid infrastructure.

It was clear that there was significant potential for growth in all divisions and at the very heart of the plan was the need for us to constantly improve our ability to attract, retain, develop and motivate the best people and to constantly improve our ability to acquire and retain clients by following the Key Principles outlined in this document. This strategic plan also involved a major review of our organisational structure and branding, the outcomes of which are incorporated into our organisational chart.

In August 2003 the Company acquired the business of Blue Chip School Travel, the UK’s leading operator of English and Drama visits for school groups.

In April 2005, in order to further ensure the successful implementation of the strategic plan, the Group made an additional investment in its infrastructure with the creation of a new support department, Business Development Support. The main purpose of this function is to provide support and practical assistance to divisions in the successful implementation of business plans, to manage new business development initiatives and to assist with major projects.

In January 2006 the Company further refined its structure by merging the 3 Blackpool based schools divisions and taking out the responsibility for the management of the 3 residential centres from this division.

This reorganisation enabled the Company to strengthen its management team by the recruitment of specialist managers both within the enlarged division and also within the Property Department.

In March 2006 the Company acquired the business of Young World Travel, a small specialist educational travel company, who cited the increasing regulatory demands regarding safety management as one of the main reasons for selling this business.

In September 2006 the Company issued its second Strategic Plan which covers the period from late 2006 to 2011. The objective of this plan was to ensure that we had a structured approach to capitalising on all the opportunities available to the company during the next 5 years.

The plan is divided into 3 parts

1. Part One - Getting The Most Out Of Our Current Products In Our Current Market Places
2. Part Two – Prioritising And Capitalising On Other Opportunities Within Our Current Market Places
3. Part Three – Prioritising and Capitalising On Opportunities Beyond Our Current Market Places

As part of Part One of this plan the Company sold off its Sports Tours business and merged its two smaller divisions (The Group Travel Company and Tours for Churches) into two of the larger divisions. This benefited the Company not just in terms of cost savings but, more significantly, by allowing the Company to focus its resources on the products with the greatest potential.

In April 2007, to further support the successful implementation of Part One of this plan the Company accelerated the widespread use of a robust and effective Business Planning and Business Development model.

By April 2007, theGroup (Including NST in Ireland) employed over 256 full time staff and 71 seasonal staff and forward bookings indicate the turnover in 2007 will be in excess of £51,000,000.