A football fanatic who grew up in the shadow of Villa Park has turned a dream into a hugely successful business taking supporters across Europe for their footie fix.
And, while Kai Rigby’s beloved Aston Villa have not qualified for Europe in years, that hasn’t stopped the self-made entrepreneur making a successful living taking fans over to the continent to watch big games.
Kai, who was born in Aston, created Football Road Trips Ltd 2015 after a lightbulb moment while spending the previous summer in Brazil for the World Cup.
The company takes football fans to three different countries to watch two huge games, over one weekend, staying in luxury hotels along the way. The luxury Mercedes minibuses are kitted out with beer fridges, Playstations and TV’s to make for a fun and comfortable trip around Europe.
The Brummie-born Villa fan, who now lives on the sunshine island of Ibiza, entered into an Entrepreneurial programme at NatWest Bank, where he spent two years building the company. During this time he was awarded the Natwest Entrepreneur of the Moment award, scooping £10,000 and even went on to win three more awards, totalling £17,000.
Since its inception, FRT have attracted more than 62,000 followers on Facebook and have achieved a rating of five stars from more than 200 of their customers. They have also achieved a huge investment from a local businessman, as well as from Premier League football agent, and ex footballer, Clive Platt.
Among the popular destinations are matches at Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Monchengladbach with fans usually taking in two games per trip as well as nights out in Bruges, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam, adding a little culture into the mix.
Kai who is himself best known as the internet’s accent guy, after videos of him doing impressions went super viral hitting more than 130 million views, explained: “Every trip is meticulously planned with an expertly trained guide, visits to multiple cities and tickets to some massive football games. FRT is not a just a tour operator but a real football, travel experience. There is nothing else like it.
“We are getting five star reviews every trip and a high proportion of repeat business.”
Kai said the majority of his customers were stag parties or birthdays but he said there had recently been more couples on the trips and an upsurge in women too. He and his partner Sarah regularly join the tours themselves to make sure high standards are maintained.
“We currently provide trips to 12 clubs across Europe and can guarantee the best seats in the house but would love to add more.
“We currently do all our trips by road but we are looking at doing corporate trips with flights and are always looking for great add ons we can offer such as beer festivals, wine tastings and cultural visits as part of a trip. We also want to add Spain to our itineraries possibly Valencia first.
“At Football Road Trips we don’t knock on doors we break down walls, with some of our deals with football clubs being exclusive access, giving us the best seats in the house. We take English fans overseas safely and in luxury and get a warm welcome everywhere we go.
“We recently took a party from the Midlands which was made up of Wolves and Villa fans. Villa then beat Wolves while we were away but it was all good natured banter on our trip. We really do feel we are flying the flag when it comes to taking fans abroad and we are excited for the future.”
He added: “Ideally Villa will get promoted and go on to play in Europe again and then I can only imagine the trips we could plan then!” That said, we are getting fans from clubs all over the country, and even had a mixed bus of Villa, Coventry and Blues recently, with the guide even coming from the blue side of the city!”
Kai has just been invited to fly to Los Angeles to compete in a World talent competition on American TV, the second time Hollywood has come calling since his viral party trick hit the web! “I turned down BGT about 10 times before I went on Australian TV doing my accents. Then I got a call from a producer in LA to go on a huge show over there. Now they want me on a really big talent show, which I am considering, but my focus lies with FRT and spreading out to more countries with it.
For details of Football Road Trips please visit www.footballroadtrips.co.uk
