Atlas Travel and Continents Insolites (IPM) join forces

Bert Uyttenbroeck and his wife Ann Vanhauwere, owners of Atlas Travel, confidently pass the torch to the le Hodey family, the family behind La Libre Belgique (IPM) and Continents Insolites. Atlas Travel was founded in 1980 and has been led by Bert Uyttenbroeck since 2002. The latter remains CEO. The company employs 17 people across its locations in Waregem and Antwerp and expects to organize around 500 tailor-made trips for its private clients in 2023. The company also provides travel services to numerous businesses in the region.

Financial advisor Lieven Stas guided CEO Bert Uyttenbroeck during a detailed and rigorous search for a party that could give a future to the vision and identity of Atlas Reizen. In Alexis le Hodey and Hervé Ollagnier, the respective shareholder representative and CEO of Continents Insolites, they found like-minded partners. The desire to collaborate is mutual. The many discussions and the remarkable similarities in the DNA of both travel organizations laid the foundation for mutual trust. Atlas Reizen thus joins the Continents Insolites group.

Atlas Reizen retains both its original roots in Waregem and its promising location in Antwerp. The goal to provide the best service in the travel sector in Flanders remains unchanged, for both private and business clients. The collaboration with Continents Insolites aims for new travel ideas, deeper expertise, and a greater capacity to invest in new technologies. Since the takeover by the le Hodey family in 2018, Continents Insolites has been actively investing in its technology organization and wants to further develop it through mutual cooperation.

Both companies share the vision to further develop the sustainability aspect in the travel sector. Atlas Reizen, for its part, has been investing for quite some time in obtaining a B Corp certification. A serious challenge for a Flemish travel organization. Bert Uyttenbroeck says about this: “B Corp is more than CO2 compensation, waste management, and energy saving. The essence is that doing business becomes a means to positive impact.”
This is also a concrete example of how both companies can benefit from their partnership.

Finally, this acquisition highlights the Hodey family’s ambition to build a network of travel organizations based on Continents Insolites and Atlas Reizen, focused on tailor-made trips in the high-end/premium segment, to offer unique experiences to their customers. By combining the best of people and technology, this network aims to become the reference for travel enthusiasts and the travel industry itself.

Overnamepartners mediated for the shareholders of Atlas Reizen.