Holidaymakers travelling with Sunweb Group do not need to worry. The tour operator is freezing their prices of its holidays cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Sunweb Group promises affected holidaymakers will be able to rebook the exact same holiday for the same price using their voucher or refund credit note (UK) at a later date. By maintaining their prices for travellers with this voucher or refund credit note, the tour operator is giving its customers security and peace of mind.
Today, Sunweb Group announces that it will be freezing its rates for booked holidays, guaranteeing affected travellers that the prices for identical travel plans within a booking period of 1 year will remain unchanged. At Sunweb Group, both holidaymakers who have already had to cancel their trip due to the Covid-19 outbreak and travellers who are regretfully still having their holidays cancelled by Sunweb Group at a later date will be issued a voucher or a refund credit note for the exact amount they have spent on their holiday already. In doing so, the tour operator wants to reassure anxious travellers who had already cancelled their travel plans that they will still be able to enjoy their dream holiday at a later date.
Voucher or Refund Credit Note (UK) guarantees same price:
Sunweb Group is indeed offering their customers the opportunity to enjoy their cancelled holiday at a later date. The online tour operator is committed to offering all of its customers the exact same holiday at the exact same price. In other words, any early booking discounts will still be applicable. Moreover, should hotels or flights prove more expensive later on, Sunweb Group guarantees the prices it initially agreed upon with its travellers will remain unchanged.
Another destination after all?
Obviously, customers can still choose to book whatever holiday they may dream of. They get the flexibility to book within one year, using their corona voucher or refund credit note. This gives customers the opportunity to opt for a different destination or hotel with an identical or cheaper price. If they book the exact same holiday, Sunweb Group’s price guarantee ensures that the original price still applies.
“We see that our customers are very disappointed right now about not being able to go on their well-deserved holiday to Egypt or that they have to miss out on that wonderful all-inclusive fortnight in Greece,” says Mattijs ten Brink, CEO at Sunweb Group. “We want to offer them the chance to still realize their dream holiday as soon as we are all allowed to travel again. Our holidaymakers can sleep easy and have peace of mind knowing that Sunweb Group guarantees they will still be able to enjoy their holiday at a later date without having to pay extra.”
As of today, all of the package holidays offered by Sunweb Group are carbon neutral through CO2 compensation. Sunweb Group travellers pay no extra costs, in contrast to the customers of many other tour operators. The company made CO2 compensation for flights, coaches, transfers and accommodations standard on all packages. The prices of its package holidays remain unchanged. With this, Sunweb Group takes responsibility for minimising its CO2 footprint.
The compensation applies to all vacations by all brands under Sunweb Group in every country. This makes Sunweb Group one of the first large-scale travel organisations to make CO2 neutral the standard for all package holidays and to help its clients travel more sustainably.
Compensation for minimum one million travellers
Tim Van den Bergh, CCO of Sunweb Group, explained, “We continuously try to improve the social, economic and environmental impact of everything we do. That is why we took responsibility for minimising the CO2 emissions of our vacations. We know that CO2 compensation is not the solution to climate change, but it is crucial that the travel industry takes action now. We hope that other partners and travel organisations will follow our example and take responsibility for their CO2 emissions.” Sunweb Group forecasts that it will offset CO2 emissions for over one million travellers in 2020. “Our CO2-compensation program is the first important step towards tackling the most polluting part of travel packages and towards bringing sustainable change to the travel sector,” continued Van den Bergh.
Calculating emission offset
The total CO2 emissions from a package holiday are calculated on four pieces: flights, coaches, transfers and accommodations. Sunweb Group then supports projects that offset CO2 by the same amount. By this process, the CO2 emissions from all passengers will be offset. At the end of 2020, the company will be able to announce precisely how many tonnes of CO2 were offset in this way.
Sustainability projects in India
The travel organisation supports renewable energy projects* in India. These projects reduce CO2 emissions on a large scale and provide renewable energy to thousands of people. For example, Sunweb Group supports windmill parks in Madhya Pradesh in central India and in Rajasthan in the northwest. Together, these projects reduce CO2 emissions by more than 350,000 tonnes per year and generate enough electricity for 76,000 Indian households.
*All of the projects that Sunweb Group supports are certified to the highest quality standards in the voluntary carbon offsetting market, such as the de Voluntary Carbon Standard.
Collaboration with ClimateCare
To carry out the CO2 offsetting, the travel group works with international partner ClimateCare. The company has more than 20 years of experience developing and implementing programs that reduce CO2 emissions on a large scale.
Press contact Sunweb Group
“I am excited to take on this new role and lead the ambitious growth agenda of the Sunweb Group. As a partner to the company for many years, I have been impressed with their unique hybrid between traditional tour operators and online travel agencies and the agility that this provides. With the backing of majority owner Triton, I see significant potential for Sunweb Group to drive consolidation of the travel market while continuing to invest in becoming a truly digital tour operator that can meet and exceed the expectations of the future traveller”, says Mattijs ten Brink, appointed CEO of Sunweb Group.
He will start his position during the fourth quarter of 2019. Departing CEO Gert de Caluwe, who is stepping down for personal reasons, will remain active during a transition period and will continue as an advisor to the Sunweb Group.
“We are pleased to welcome Mattijs ten Brink to the Sunweb Group. He has extensive experience from the travel industry and is very familiar with the Sunweb Group’s business model, our consumers and working with a digital distribution model. We are fortunate to have someone of his calibre and experience take on the leadership of creating a new leading European travel group. I would also like to thank Gert de Caluwe who´s excellent stewardship for the past six years has brought consistent volume and bottom line growth in a very difficult and challenging travel market”, says Lars Löfgren, Chairman of the Board at Sunweb Group.
Press contact Sunweb Group
Picture from 2017 with Mattijs when Sunweb added the Transavia logo to the Tour de France jersey of Team Sunweb in celebration of Transavia’s 50th anniversary.
Triton is to acquire the tour operating activities of Corendon Holiday Group (Corendon) through Sunweb Group (Sunweb), a Triton Fund V portfolio company. Final agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals and to employee consultation procedures.
For more details watch the personal video-message from our CEO Gert de Caluwe enclosed in this mail.
May we ask to keep this news confidential for now as a press release will follow later today. We will also share this with you.
Sincere thanks.
Triton is to acquire the tour operating activities of Corendon Holiday Group (Corendon) through Sunweb Group (Sunweb), a Triton Fund V portfolio company. Final agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals and to employee consultation procedures.
Especially for you, a personal video-message has been made by our CEO, Gert de Caluwe, together with Steven van der Heijden, CEO of Corendon International Travel and Corendon Dutch Airlines. May we ask you to keep this news confidential for now as a press release will follow later today. We will also share this with you.
We can imagine that this big news can raise some questions. Therefore we created a Q&A page on Confluence that will be regularly updated in the coming months. Please note that this page can only be consulted via our internal network. If you have any other questions, you can address them to HR or to the Management Team. Also on Thursday during the Townhall session in Rotterdam (and streamed via Teams) we will provide extra info and questions can be asked.
Sincere thanks.
Stockholm (Sweden) / Amsterdam (the Netherlands), 3rd of June 2019- Triton is to acquire the tour operating activities of Corendon Holiday Group (Corendon) through Sunweb Group (Sunweb), a Triton Fund V portfolio company. Final agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals and to employee consultation procedures. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Acquisition of Corendon
Founded in 2000 by Atilay Uslu and Yildiray Karaer, with more than EUR 515m in turnover in 2018, Corendon creates fully integrated holiday experiences for more than 750,000 customers a year in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company started as a travel agency and developed into a tour operator. In 2005 Corendon launched Corendon Airlines International in Turkey, in 2011 Corendon Dutch Airlines in the Netherlands and in 2017 Corendon Airlines Europe at Malta. Besides the travel company Corendon also opened several hotels in Turkey, the Netherlands, Ibiza and Curacao.
The signed agreement consists of the Corendon tour operating activities in the Netherlands and Belgium, the back-office in Turkey and Corendon Dutch Airlines. It also includes Corendon´s brands Karin’s Choice, Maris Life, Stip, and GOfun. The airline in Turkey and Malta and the hotels of Corendon Hotels & Resorts are not part of this acquisition. Mr. Uslu will become a member of the non-executive board of the future combined travel company.
Merger of Corendon and Sunweb
Triton became majority shareholder of Sunweb Group earlier this year. The acquisition of Corendon is the first deal for Sunweb under the new ownership, and it will contribute to taking the travel company to a next level. This deal brings the travel brands Corendon and Sunweb together under Triton´s support. Both companies share the same online-driven, customer-focused strategy. Both companies are strong in sun and beach holidays and the major destinations of Corendon and Sunweb complement one another.
The combined company will take advantage of the innovative power and the entrepreneurial DNA for which they are both known. The enhanced scale and financial strength will accelerate digital and concept innovation and create a more appealing product offering and a unique and distinctive customer experience. The merger will create opportunities to build scale towards multiple destinations across a larger client base, with a mix of owned and external airline capacity in multiple source markets.
From an organizational-, consumer- or brand- perspective neither Corendon nor Sunweb will see immediate changes. Operations will continue as usual and similarly, there will be no change in the current respective management or company structures. Also, service delivery as well as the collaboration with business partners of both companies will continue to operate as usual.
Quotes from Sunweb, Corendon and Triton
“In essence, we announce a future marriage today. A marriage of two winning models. Today we announce that together we will build – speaking in the language of Sunweb – next to our other Powerhouses the most innovative Sun Powerhouse in Europe. We also gladly embrace a complementary inhouse airline, next to the strong airline partnerships we currently have, especially with our partners Transavia and Brussels Airlines. We combine two companies with a similar customer focus, a similar online focus and both with a clear value-for-money strategy. A marriage of two big sets of complementary skills and talent,” said Gert de Caluwe, CEO of Sunweb Group.
“We are very pleased to welcome Sunweb and not the least their majority owner Triton, who has demonstrated deep sector knowledge of the travel space, as new majority owner of the Corendon tour operator activities. The coming merger of Sunweb and Corendon feels like a very natural and logic step. Combining these two companies into one will be a great adventure. Sunweb has moved from a Dutch player towards an international player with strong presence not only in Sun, but also in Ski. Combining this platform with the powerful Sun strength of Corendon and its own airline creates a strong platform for continued investments in innovation, sustainable travel and digitalization,” said Steven van der Heijden, CEO of Corendon International Travel and Corendon Dutch Airlines.
“The value chain in travel is changing and Corendon has proven that its position and business model is resilient and winning in this complex environment. The entrepreneurial DNA and the shared mission of both Sunweb and Corendon to deliver the best possible holiday experience for customers will make sure that we will keep on expanding our position in the European travel market. As owners we strive to maintain and preserve the cultures of both Corendon and Sunweb to provide a great place to work. The combination will also provide a strong platform to continue investing in innovation, sustainable travel and digitalization and to deliver a superior customer experience and exceed the expectations of the future traveler,” said Per Agebäck, Investment Advisory Professional, Sector Leader for Consumer and advisor to the Triton Funds.
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About Corendon Holiday Group
Corendon Holiday Group is a leading tour operator and airline in the Dutch and Belgium travel market. With a 2018 turnover of EUR 515m and approximately 450 employees, Corendon took care of the holidays of more than 750,000 customers to sun and beach destinations worldwide. Next to the Corendon power brand, the company carries the labels GOfun, Stip Reizen, Maris Life, Crusj and Karin’s Choice. Corendon is known as a fast growing, online driven, customer focused travel brand, with a clear value-for-money strategy. The striking slogan reads: Always the best travel deals! Besides Corendon Dutch Airlines (three aircraft) the aviation part of the company worldwide also consists of Corendon Airlines International (Turkey, twelve aircraft) and Corendon Airlines Europe (Malta, four aircraft). Sister company Corendon Hotels & Resorts offers hotels and resorts in The Netherlands, Turkey, Ibiza and Curaçao. The signed agreement with Triton consists of the Corendon Holiday Group with tour operating activities in Holland and Belgium, a back-office in Turkey and Corendon Dutch Airlines.
About Triton
Since its establishment in 1997, Triton has sponsored nine funds, focusing on businesses in the industrial, business services, consumer and health sectors. The Triton funds invest in and support the positive development of medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe. Triton seeks to contribute to the building of better businesses for the longer term. Triton and its executives wish to be agents of positive change towards sustainable operational improvements and growth. The 38 companies currently in Triton’s portfolio have combined sales of around €14.9billion and around 72,000 employees. For further information: www.triton-partners.com
On this festive day we want to thank you for your efforts of last year. We would like to reward these efforts with a beautiful and sporty Christmas gift, the Sunweb Group folding bike!
Below you can already see an impression of this cool bike. You will have to wait for a while, but as soon as the weather is nicer again, the bike will be handed out to everyone of you.
We hope this bike will bring you to several nice locations or events and will make it possible to create some lifetime memories…
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, sporty and travellicious 2019.
Best wishes,
The Sunweb Santa
Founded 1991 in the Netherlands, and with more than EUR 600m in turnover, Sunweb serves ~1 million customers annually providing packaged holidays to more than 20 focal destinations across Europe and the Mediterranean. As an online tour operator, Sunweb combines the best features of the online travel agencies’ asset light business model and the content quality and customer experience provided by traditional tour operators.
“Sunweb´s online tour operating model is a unique hybrid between traditional tour operators and online travel agencies. The value chain in travel is changing, and Sunweb has proven that its position and business model is resilient and winning in this complex environment. Directly sourced quality content sold directly to the consumer through Sunweb’s own digital sales channels makes the company well position to benefit from the megatrends of growing travel and increased conversion to online,” said Per Agebäck, Investment Advisory Professional, sector leader for consumer and advisor to the Triton Funds.
“We are pleased to welcome Triton as new majority owner of Sunweb. They have demonstrated deep sector knowledge of the travel space and is the right partner to the Company as we continue investing in digital capabilities and expand across Europe,” said Joost Romeijn, founder of Sunweb, who will remain invested in the group.
Headquartered in the Netherlands and Switzerland, with additional sales offices in core source markets, the company retains leading European market positions in both winter sports and summer holiday offerings. Consisting of the five powerhouse brands; Sunweb Sun, Sunweb Ski, Eliza was here, Primavera and GoGo, Sunweb Group has approximately 500 employees and direct contracts with 6,000+ accommodations including hotels, apartments and resorts. Growing from core markets in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, the group has expanded into Denmark, Germany and the UK and continues to explore opportunities for geographic expansion.
“We look forward to actively supporting the management and employees as a stable owner by investing in and supporting the growth and development of the company. Our strong industry expertise, gained through other investments and strengthened by senior industry experts, will contribute in taking the company to the next level.” said Peder Prahl, Director of the General Partner for the Triton funds.
On the sell-side, William Blair as investment banker and NautaDutilh as legal advisor acted as the advisors of Sunweb Group.
About Triton
The Triton funds invest in and support the positive development of medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe, focusing on businesses in the Industrial, Business Services and Consumer/Health sectors.
Triton seeks to contribute to the building of better businesses for the longer term. Triton and its executives wish to be agents of positive change towards sustainable operational improvements and growth. The 37 companies currently in Triton’s portfolio have combined sales of around € 12.9 billion and around 83,000 employees.
The Triton funds are advised by dedicated teams of professionals based in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Luxembourg and Jersey.
Curious about the news? Watch the personal video-message from our CEO Gert de Caluwe enclosed in this mail.
May we ask to keep this news confidential for now as a press release will follow at latest tomorrow evening
Sincere thanks.
Along with the new year comes a new distinct look for Team Sunweb. Shifting away from the predominantly white design that has animated the peloton and podiums during the previous years, the team embarks on their new chapter with Craft with a new eye-catching kit design. Once again, all three programs will share the same kit.
Their new Sunweb red colours proudly retain their recognisable two-stripe design for the sixth consecutive year, continuing the team’s reference to their Keep Challenging DNA. Besides the clearly-visible stripes, also KC watermark stripes are added. The left stripe represents the continuous development of the riders both as individuals and as athletes. The right stripe represents the development of the elite sports environment.
New Year, New chapter:
2019 marks the start of a new chapter for Team Sunweb, as they welcome on board a bundle of new (technical) partners including Craft. Craft, a big name in the clothing industry and the team’s new apparel partner will manufacture their state-of-the-art race kit using the latest technologies, with aerodynamics and safety at the core of their designs. Next to race clothing, the Scandinavian brand will also produce all casual and formal clothing for riders and staff.
A Passion for Innovation.
Sharing innovative qualities, Craft, Team Sunweb’s experts and other innovation partners will work closely together to make the next steps in aerodynamics, as well as safety improvements and temperature control through clothing. The protective shorts will continue to be used with more applications of DSM Dyneema’s protective fibres expected in 2019, adding an extra layer of protection to the kit, enhancing safety and confidence.