Wonderluxe is formally wound up Ian Taylor
Former luxury travel agency Wonderluxe, which ceased trading in July last year, has been formally wound up with creditors left £400,000 out of pocket. A specialist in tailor-made luxury,
Wonderluxe was founded in 2019 by Sheena Sumner who had worked in the industry for almost two decades. The company ceased trading after a silent partner withdrew. Joint administrators Michael
Jenkins and David Broadbent of Begbies Traynor reported there were insufficient assets to pay the £2,500 owed to employees or a £10,000 bill to HM Revenue & Customs. Trade creditors were owed £43,000, NatWest £75,000 and
investor Patrick Thomas £269,000. However, the company’s
forward bookings were picked up by Protected Trust Services (PTS) which provided trust arrangements to cover Wonderluxe’s business under its own Atol and there was no call on the Air Travel Trust fund. Three Wonderluxe homeworkers
joined PTS on their own account to fulfil the business, with 92 bookings outstanding worth £549,000 including £134,000-worth of Atol-to-Atol bookings. PTS executive director Emma
Collis explained: “All client funds were fully protected, and every booking has been fulfilled as originally planned, with 15 clients still to travel. Not a single client or supplier was [adversely] affected.”
Dertour to retain all 11 brands after Hotelplan takeover
Juliet Dennis
Dertour UK has pledged all 11 tour operators in its enlarged portfolio will continue as independent brands as it looks to “evolve and grow” following the completion of its Hotelplan acquisition. The deal to buy four out of five units of the Hotelplan Group from Swiss retail cooperative Migros, announced in February, has been finalised following approval by the Swiss Competition Commission. The UK arm of Dertour Group
– Europe’s second-largest travel group – now comprises 11 specialist
6 4 SEPTEMBER 2025
businesses. Explore Worldwide, Inghams, Inntravel and Santa’s Lapland have joined existing UK brands Kuoni, Carrier, CV Villas, Journey Latin America, Jules Verne, Kirker and Solmar Villas. Dertour UK boss Francis Torrilla
has been promoted to the helm of the significantly expanded UK business, while Hotelplan UK chief executive Joe Ponte has left the business. Torrilla promised “no immediate
changes” to job roles or teams within the group’s UK brands, or to current business locations “for now”, but hinted at efficiencies on “shared services” such as IT and finance.
All client funds
were fully protected, and every booking has been fulfilled as originally planned
She added: “All the bookings were
handled by the original homeworkers, and suppliers were fantastic in supporting the transfer of bookings to the homeworkers. Everything continued as originally booked, with Atol-protected bookings reprotected under the PTS Atol.” Collis noted: “Control of client
funds is key to ensuring everyone is protected.” Two of the three ex-homeworkers
Francis Torrilla
continue to work with PTS and are “doing extremely well”, according to Collis. The third fulfilled the outstanding bookings but then paused trading for personal reasons, although Collis said: “The door remains open should she wish to return.” Sumner has since set up a new
company, Sheena Sumner Private Travel, and engaged with potential clients on Instagram, although the business’s website remains “under construction” and the venture does not appear to have begun trading. The new business is not a PTS member. Collis said: “Sheena managed the
voluntary liquidation extremely well with PTS. It was a sad situation for her, losing the investment, after years of hard work. We wish her every success in whatever is next for her.”
He said: “We’ll be a group of 11
specialist businesses, so it [this deal] significantly expands the size and scale of our operation in the UK. “It’s important to say that all the
specialist businesses will remain. Inghams, Inntravel, Explore Worldwide and Santa’s Lapland are well-loved brands and operate independently. “We both have shared services
such as IT, finance, HR, project management, sustainability and communications and we’ll take time to look at how we manage that moving forward, so we can work efficiently
and enable our brands to thrive.” He stressed agents would remain
part of the distribution mix, with brands retaining separate marketing, sales and trade relations functions. Torrilla added: “All the brands
complement each other. They operate in specific markets, so we don’t believe there is any overlap. We want to evolve and grow and it’s an exciting time for us to be part of one team.” If job changes are required, the
business would “work through them carefully and communicate openly with our teams”.
travelweekly.co.uk
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