25 years and still going strong:

The Travel Management Group, based in Leamington, is an internationally-renowned corporate travel specialist.

It caters for all the travel needs of a string of blue chip companies, both domestically and across the globe, but it is better known for its sporting services.

The company, which employs more than 60 staff, has a sports division which specialises in football travel - and has taken at least one team into Europe for every single season since it was founded.

This year it is looking after the travel arrangements of Birmingham and Fulham - but has just won the business travel accounts for Aston Villa and Blackburn.

Ian Dunwoody, the founder and now chairman of TMG, says the long-running success of the firm has been down to not relying on any single sector.

He said: "We have always believed in having a mixed business. It's like an oil tanker which has various watertight compartments. If one gets holed, then the others keep the ship afloat.

"We are known for sport because of the high profile of football and also the names we have looked after, but while it has been 80-90 per cent of the fun, it has never been more than around 15 per cent of the business.

"It is also a turbulent sector which can rely on results and there is no way I would want to risk the security of our staff on the accuracy of a free-kick or the judgement call of a referee."

But in the last 25 years they have catered for the needs - and whims - of 34 clubs including Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle, as well as England supporters, and currently organises the Asia Trophy for the Premier League.

That TMG has its roots in Leamington is courtesy of the fact the town was a major centre in the travel industry.

In the 1960s Thomson bought Lunn Poly and John Camkin Travel and merged the two, making its national headquarters in the town.

That also brought Ian Dunwoody together with another travel veteran, George Dick, and the two have worked together ever since, aside from one period of separation when the former started TMG, putting him in direct opposition to the latter eponymous firm.

But that schism ended in 1995 when the two businesses merged.

The duo are still very much involved in the business but they have developed a team of younger managers who have now graduated to board level.

In an industry not renowned for having to hand out long service awards, TMG has kept a very steady team of staff, something Dunwoody believes is essential.

"If members of staff are expected to work hard and deliver the highest standards possible, then they have to feel a real part of the team," he added.

"We might not be the biggest player in the market, but I think we value our staff and their contribution to the business more than most other companies and that has paid off in terms of loyalty and continuity.

"That does not always mean it has been easy. The travel industry is a very good barometer of the economy. We probably get wind of a coming downturn around 18 months before it really hits, and we were impacted.

"When we realised that we were in for a testing time we decided to go to the staff council which represents all the divisions of the company and said we could work through the problem together or we might have to slim down staff numbers.

"Unanimously they decided to take the former path of action. Fortunately we are now through that phase and are chalking up some very good figures."

In fact the firm has won £2.5 million worth of new contracts in the last six months with companies involved in the medical, finance and logistics sectors.

It has also invested heavily to keep its systems at the cutting edge of the industry.

"We have always been at the head of the game technologically and I think that combined with a more "traditional" approach to levels of service and customer care have stood us in very good stead," Dunwoody added.