WTL Travel Services fails owing £277k Juliet Dennis
WTL Travel Services has gone into liquidation owing travel agency staff £127,000. The Blackpool-based firm was
set up in March last year by David McDonald, director of Book in Style, which traded as agency chain World Travel Lounge. World Travel Lounge staff were
transferred across to work for WTL Travel Services. A Statement of Affairs filed by
the liquidator shows the company failed owing £277, 784 to creditors, including 22 members of staff, and holding just £8,000 in assets. Employees are owed more than £48,000 in wages and almost £79,000 in redundancy and notice pay, with
most of the remaining debt owed to HM Revenue & Customs. Ian Williamson and Christopher
Brindle, of Campbell Crossley & Davis, were appointed liquidators on March 2. The company confirmed the liquidation was in its initial stages. McDonald, who set up World
Travel Lounge in 2015 and grew the chain to 10 branches, said: “Covid had a huge impact and as such we have recently sold a number of stores – three to Protected Trust Services and one to Holiday with Us – while also closing a number of other stores, protecting as many roles as we could. “Our sole focus has always
been our colleagues. We’re doing everything we can to support them through this difficult time.” McDonald is named on Companies
Byrne vows to ‘win hearts and minds’ of Holidaysplease team
Robin Searle
Travel Counsellors’ chief executive reassured Holidaysplease agents and support staff it will be “business as usual” for its brands and operations following its acquisition this week. Steve Byrne said the company is
committed to “winning the hearts and minds of Holidaysplease people” following the acquisition for an undisclosed sum. Speaking after the announcement
on Monday, Byrne said all brands and staff would be retained and the acquisition was designed to capitalise
4 16 MARCH 2023
on the strengths of both companies to drive growth. This includes giving Holidaysplease’s 100 agents and 50 franchisees access to Travel Counsellors’ in-house technology, marketing and product ranges, and exploring opportunities to build on the former’s lead-generation expertise, Byrne added. Holidaysplease directors
Richard Dixon, Sonia Dixon and Charles Duncombe will oversee the transition “for the foreseeable future”, the companies confirmed. “We want to showcase the
benefit of being part of the Travel Counsellors community,” Byrne said.
“We want to make sure they
feel valued and supported and can keep on doing wonderful things for their customers. Hopefully they will get benefits from the things we do and we will get benefits from the wonderful things they do. “We want people to see what
we’ve got and think it will help them, we don’t want to force them into anything. Our products and services have got to stack up, and we need to win hearts and minds. “The principles and values we
use to run the Travel Counsellors business will be the same for the people at Holidaysplease and we want
Covid had a
huge impact [on the business] and as such we have recently sold a number of stores
House as director of WTL Travel Services, Book in Style, Spalding Travel and Travel Co-op Limited. He recently resigned as director of a further company, Irene’s Breakfast. In October last year, two World
Travel Lounge branches, in Preston and Blackpool, were acquired by Hays Travel North West, reducing the former’s retail estate to eight. In January this year, Protected Travel Services took over the
World Travel Lounge branches in Cleveleys, Fleetwood and Leyland, and its in-house tour operation Odisea. This included its 16 staff, formerly employed by WTL Travel Services, which was not a member of Protected Trust Services [PTS]. Book in Style had its membership
of PTS terminated in January. Its 1,500 bookings remain in trust and are being protected by Protected Trust Services and fulfilled by Protected Travel Services. World Travel Lounge also had
branches in Thornby, Crosby, Nott End, Lytham and Spalding, with the Spalding shop now understood to be owned by Holiday with Us. The website for its LGBTQ+ tour
operation Chillimix, launched in 2020, is not currently accessible.
Steve Byrne
them to see they can build even more rewarding businesses and careers – and that’s all 200 of them: agents, franchisees and support colleagues.” Byrne said Travel Counsellors had
“always been open” to opportunities following the first acquisition in its 29-year history, but insisted its priority was now on integrating the Holidaysplease business rather than on further deals. “We are really focused on making
a success of this and making sure we look after the Holidaysplease agents and colleagues,” he said. “We need to do a great job by them and that needs to be our priority now.”
travelweekly.co.uk
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