The sale of the Fischer Group has been completed

The sale of the FISCHER Group has been completed. The KKCG financial group has transferred the travel agency to DER Touristik, the tour-ism division of the REWE Group. The entire transaction was finalised following its approval in April by the Office for the Protection of Competition.

The planned change in ownership of one of the largest travel agency in the Czech Republic was announced last autumn. KKCG has sold FISCHER Group after sixteen years in which it has transformed the company, merging it with other companies such as NEV-DAMA, eTRAVEL and PRIVELEQ. These brands now constitute the FISCHER Group, which today becomes part of German giant DER Touristik.

“We carried out a targeted search in Eastern Europe for partners who have a similar perspective on business to us: they are creative, innovative and have a strong position on their local market. The FISCHER Group definitely is this kind of partner. Up until the breakout of the pandemic the FISCHER Group had continuously grown over the last four years,” says Sören Hartmann, CEO of the DER Touristik Group.

“We have built CK FISCHER up to be a strong company with considerable potential. I believe that the people who work for and manage the travel agency will be able – just as they did sixteen years ago – to successfully overcome the current challenge, too,” says Karel Komárek, founder of the KKCG Group.

The DER Touristik group is the tourism division of the REWE Group and has a presence on a total of 16 markets in Europe. The DER Touristik Group and the seller, KKCG, agreed to not disclose any information on the amount of the transaction.

The decision to acquire the FISCHER Group is also supported by Ferid Nasr, CEO of Exim Holding, which is responsible for the DER Touristik Group’s activities in Eastern Europe: “Despite the fact that our sector is currently experiencing serious problems worldwide due to the coronavirus crisis, I consider this merger to be a good move. There will be a time after the coronavirus pandemic, and when this comes, successful and well-run companies such as the FISCHER Group will help us to be successful again after the crisis has passed”.

The FISCHER Group changes ownership at a time when the tourism market worldwide is in a state of hibernation.

“I believe that, once all the restrictions have been ended, we will be able to continue doing what we have been doing successfully in the last few year: offering holidays abroad to a broad spectrum of Czech clients,” says Jiří Jelínek, CEO of the FISCHER Group.

Jelínek took over leadership of the travel agency after the KKCG Group acquired when it was in a very bad condition. In the words of Jelínek, CK FISCHER is a flexible organisation that is able to cope with even the current collapse in tourism. “I am in no doubt that we can cope with this situation, too, and be successful again. That fact that at this moment we are not alone and we are backed by an international group that is strong in the tourism sector,” adds Jiří Jelínek.

Based in Cologne, Germany, the DER Touristik Group is one of the leading travel agencies in Europe. It encompasses around 130 companies and in 2018 had a total turnover of 6.7 billion Euros. The DER Touristik Group is the tourism division of the REWE group. It employs 10,900 people in 16 European countries. Every year its delegate and specialist services are utilised by 9.9 guests. Its brands include Dertour and ITS in Germany, Kuoni and Helvetic Tours in Switzerland, Exim Tours and Kartago Tours in Eastern Europe, Apollo in Scandinavia and Kuoni in the United Kingdom and France. The group includes around 2,800 travel agencies, including the number one on the German market, DER Reisebüro, as well as online sales channels. The DER Touristik Group operates 5 hotel networks, one airline and travel agencies with 61 offices in 26 locations. For further information, please see www.dertouristik.com.

The KKCG investment group currently administers major companies with a total book value of 6 billion EUR. The KKCG Group and the companies it owns have around 6,000 employees and are involved in commercial activities in eighteen countries across the globe. The KKCG group holds stakes in, for example, the following companies: the MND group, SAZKA Group, Aricoma Group, US Methanol and others.