Africa & Beyond became a client of The Firebird Partnership in 2023 – kickstarting a new phase of targeted growth under the MD-ship of Firebird Director Matt Purser. As 2025 unfolds, Matt reveals an exclusive update from the business, and Ian Finlay sums up the journey so far.

“Africa & Beyond is stepping forward into a new chapter”
Matt Purser: In autumn 2023, I was working with Firebird on a management buyout (MBO) of Africa & Beyond, alongside the business’s Sales Director Jamie Taylor. Firebird’s Ian Finlay was to give his support as a Non-Executive Director (NED), and together we were looking to recruit an MD who could team up with Jamie.
I quickly realised I had fallen in love with Africa & Beyond, and with the blessing of the management team I took on the MD role myself. That October, the MBO process was successfully completed and we were able to begin the rewarding work of targeting growth opportunities. Now the wider Firebird team are stepping back, and Africa & Beyond is steering forward into a new chapter.
“Firebird’s approach ensured we looked at every aspect of strategy and problem-solving”
I’ve worked in travel for a long time – setting up the Travel Trade Consultancy in 2005 – but I hadn’t been fully involved in the day-to-day side running of a tour operator before this MD role. Instead my focus had been on the regulatory and legal side of things.
After joining the business, my biggest focal points became sales and customer service. Questions like, Have we got the staff to fulfil our bookings? Are we getting enough enquiries through? Are we converting what we need to convert? Living and breathing Africa & Beyond as part of the team.
Having Ian on the board to show me the ropes in those early days was massively helpful for building stability with the new management structure. Monthly board meetings meant we could get the right formalities in place, with Firebird’s approach ensuring that we were looking at every aspect in terms of strategy and problem-solving; making sure we’d considered everything.
Ian and Stewart Lambert (fellow Co-Founder of Firebird) have been there to offer advice when I needed it, guiding me as well as the wider Africa & Beyond team. That is what has given me the confidence to go it alone, and I can see how this enthusiasm is driving my team forward. I’ve got big plans for the future as we continue on this journey.
“We want to look at acquiring other businesses”
What we want to do next is not only maintain our focus on growing Africa & Beyond further in an organic way. We also want to look at acquiring other travel businesses that would be the right fit for us; additions that could take us in a slightly different direction to other specialist tour operators in our sector. I am open-minded on what exactly this could look like – and whether we will acquire businesses that are more generalist or more specialist. My main priority is that any deals fit with the brilliant people we already have in our team.
It feels like there are exciting times ahead.
"Firebird focused on ensuring that the structure and team were right for long-term sustainable growth"
Ian Finlay: Husband-wife team Richard and Charlotte Russell, the Co-Founders of Africa & Beyond, first called on Firebird in 2023 to explore their exit options; specifically options that would enable the business to reach its full potential. We’re delighted to have been involved since then, and to have helped at this critical stage in the company’s development.
From the start, we focused on ensuring that the structure and team were right for long-term sustainable growth. Now, after more than a year of collaboration, fundamentals are in place that will allow an acquisition – or more than one! – to be integrated with the great work that has been done for the business so far.
We wish Matt, Jamie and the team every success on the next part of their journey.
Matt Purser is a Director of the Firebird Partnership, and has worked in travel since 1989, beginning with ATOL at the Civil Aviation Authority. There he was instrumental in scoping out regulatory changes to protect consumers. In 2005, he set up the Travel Trade Consultancy (TTC) and helped grow it from a start-up to a million-pound-turnover business. He became the MD of Africa & Beyond in 2023.
Ian Finlay is Co-Founder of the Firebird Partnership, and has spent more than 30 years in the travel, leisure and education space: a career encompassing inbound operations, language schools, activity centres, hotels, bars and restaurants, and outbound tour operating.
Learn all about Firebird at www.firebirdpartnership.com
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