UP TO 20 First Choice staff could be made redundant as
part of a review and consolidation of some of its European specialist
businesses.
Staff are in a 30-day consultation period following a
decision by UK premium business managing director Ian Simkins to focus
Sovereign, Hayes and Jarvis and Meon on short-haul beach, worldwide and villa holidays.
Meanwhile, specialist Longshot Golf could be sold as
it “does not fit within the strategic objectives of the group”, according to a
company statement.
The restructuring sees a reduction in the
size of the Sovereign brand – the Sovereign Cities programme will be dropped
from March 14 and its Disneyland Resort Paris brochure will be branded and run
by First Choice Holidays.
Its villa programme will move from Crawley to Meon’s
Petersfield offices to create a “single centre of excellence for villas”.
The Eurostar and Ireland programmes have already been
ditched – only the summer sun, winter sun and worldwide programmes remain. It
will continue to operate from Crawley.
Sources suggest the Sovereign brand – separated out as
a stand-alone business in 2000 and relaunched as a premium operator in July 2001
– could eventually be phased out.
In November its cities programme was repositioned as
part of continual attempts to move it further upmarket.
One source added: “First Choice will end up getting
rid of Sovereign Worldwide too and putting the product into Hayes and Jarvis.”
Key staff have left Sovereign in the past year,
including managing director Philippa Harris, sales director Stuart Wright, and
director of specialist products Anna Prentice.
Simkins confirmed staff
across Sovereign, Hayes and Jarvis and Meon were in consultation. He added:
“I’m unable to confirm the exact number of staff involved or affected. It is
unlikely to be more than 20 people.”