plc see lotus cars . for the groupware software see lotus notes . lotus group trading name dialaflight supertravel lotus business travel industry travel founded london uk 1980 1980 founder peter stephens headquarters london united kingdom number of locations london croydon maidstone manchester area served united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland key people peter stephens christine burrowes john phelps and george ross products flights and holidays total assets 131 981 949 owner peter stephens and christine burrowes number of employees 437 website lotusgroup.co.uk the lotus group is a british travel company that owns dialaflight supertravel and lotus business travel . the company organises the travel arrangements including flights hotels tours and car rental for almost half a million people a year . 1 contents 1 operations 2 company founders 3 the company in the media 4 references 5 external links operations edit dialaflight whose customers book flights by telephone generates 80 % of the lotus group sales ; its other companies include supertravel which provides luxury ski and golf holidays and lotus business travel which handles business travel arrangements for smes . 1 2 the company s business model for corporate travel involves offering clients discounted prices for making immediate payment rather than buying tickets on credit . 3 the group started using a new it system in 2002 which helped profits grow 51 % in a year from 3.3 m in 2000 to 11.5 m in 2003 . 4 in december 2013 the lotus group made the 1 000 companies to inspire britain list of the uk s most exciting small and medium sized companies drawn up by the london stock exchange . 5 6 the lotus group has also made the profit track 100 list of britain s top 100 private companies with the fastest growing profits three times and the top track 250 list of britain s leading mid market private companies with the biggest sales seven times . 7 both these league tables are published by fast track a network of the uk s top performing private companies in association with the sunday times . in 2011 the company set up its own charity make my day better which supports a number of projects in third world countries plus educational and medical research . 8 9 this includes donating to and arranging air links for uk disaster response charity shelterbox . 10 company founders edit the company was founded in 1980 and is still run by two of the original founder members peter stephens and christine burrowes who own a stake of 75 % and 25 % respectively . stephens who used to work as sub editor on the kent evening post newspaper 3 was named as 79th in the management today list of britain s top 100 entrepreneurs 2006 11 and the sunday times list of the richest people in travel in 2012 . 12 the company in the media edit dialaflight entered legal proceedings against a number of travel review sites in 2009 after libellous comments appeared on those sites . 13 in august 2013 the company was one of a number that boycotted advertising on the social networking website askfm after 14 year old hannah smith killed herself after being bullied by users of the site . 14 references edit a b 2011 top track 250 rank 96 lotus group fasttrack.co.uk 2003 profit track 100 rank 21 lotus group fasttrack.co.uk a b sturgess trevor september 02 2005 cutting the cost of business travel kentonline.co.uk 2005 profit track 100 rank 80 lotus group fasttrack.co.uk browning richard 13 december 2013 revealed the uk s 1 000 most exciting and inspirational companies thisismoney.co.uk 1000 companies to inspire britain lotus group lseg.com fast track the lotus group fasttrack.co.uk charity commission make my day better charitycommission.gov.uk make my day better website 29 october 2013 dialaflight makes shelterbox s day better with 50 000 gift shelterbox.org britain s top 100 entrepreneurs 2006 the league table 16 january 2006 managementtoday.co.uk richest in travel revealed by sunday times list 30 april 2012 travelweekly.co.uk schaal dennis and may kevin june 26 2009 dialaflight in legal wrangle with tripadvisor and microsoft travolution.co.uk evans martin 08 august 2013 advertisers boycott askfm website after teen suicide external links edit dialaflight the lotus group make my day better retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lotus group & oldid 731753742 categories companies based in londoncompanies established in 1980travel and holiday companies of the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 09 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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