A consortium led by Tony Merrygold, owner of The Open Road Classic Car Hire and Chairman of the South Warwickshire Association of Tourist Attractions (SWATA), has reached an agreement with the Liquidators of South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd to buy the company assets.  The consortium includes three key partners: Tony Merrygold, Sally Carrick and the technology company, New Vision Group, who are responsible for running the Shakespeare Country Destination Management System and Guestlink accommodation booking system.

The three partners have secured the physical assets of the company, which include the Shakespeare Country Brand and registered Trade Mark, the domain names, the www.shakespeare-country.co.uk website together with use of the Guestlink system.

Tony Merrygold stated “We were keen to ensure the continuity of service on a very successful and popular website, together with the reservation system that delivers online bookings to many of the local accommodation providers.  We wanted to act quickly to make sure that the assets remained together and were in the control of a commercial enterprise that would be more responsive and able to react quickly to the needs of businesses and changing market conditions.”

“We plan to maintain co-operation with both Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick District Councils in ensuring the towns and the local area are promoted as widely as possible.  We are extremely excited about working with such a prestigious and recognisable brand and want to ensure that Shakespeare Country once again delivers a first class service on behalf of local businesses and remains one of the most famous tourist destinations in the country”.

Martin Coyne, of insolvency practitioners Poppleton & Appleby, said: “The priority, as we established at the creditors’ meeting, was a quick sale to someone with knowledge of the area and we hope that its promotion will now continue for the common good.”