Family owned travel company Slattery Travel has purchased Dublin based tour operator Stein Travel.

No price for the acquisition was released yesterday but in a statement Slattery said the combined entity would have an annual turnover of more than €70 million and a joint customer base of 150,000.

The latest accounts for Michael Stein Travel state the company lost €494,231 in the year to end October 2005.

The previous year the company lost €5.14 million.

The company, which is owned by Michael and Rosalind Stein, had accumulated losses of €3.4 million at end October 2005. The directors were not paid in the year to October 2005, according to the accounts.

Slattery Travel publishes abridged financial statements. The latest balance sheet, for end October 2005, shows an excess of assets over liabilities of €383,689.

The profit and loss account shows an accumulated profit of €301,000.

Both Slattery's and Stein Travel will continue to trade under their own names. Slattery's has in recent times developed holiday packages from regional airports such as Kerry, Cork, Shannon and Knock.

Stein Travel specialises in sun holidays to the Mediterranean.

In 2001 it introduced Ireland's first online package holiday website, and in 2002 it acquired the business of Corona Holidays.

David Slattery, chief executive of Slattery's, said there was an excellent synergy between the two travel companies.