A TOTAL of 116 staff are being made redundant at Bridge,
with its sales and marketing team effectively “shut
down” following the merger with Cresta Holidays.
Staff at Bridge’s Broxbourne and Cresta’s Altrincham
offices received redundancy notices last Friday. A further 94 staff
have been redeployed or left the business of their own accord.
The first tranche of 49 staff have been made redundant –
including sales director Andrew Williams – with 55 more to go
in November and 12 in December.
Bridge’s call centre staff and Swiss Travel Service remain
in Broxbourne under former deputy managing director Alan Croft. MD
Brian Fell stays on to help with the merger until Christmas, and
finance director Richard Hill will oversee the accounts until
January.
Other casualties include Bridge national sales manager Leigh
Anderson and south of England business development manager Maxine
Dunsdon, who has joined Norwegian Coastal Voyage.
Bridge business development manager for Scotland and the
northeast, Gary Rankin, has moved to MyTravel’s new cruise
retail business, and central region business development manager
Cherie Bailey will work for Going Places.
Williams said he would honour his MyTravel contract but hoped to
set up a new travel business with Bridge product director Phil
Jenkins, also made redundant. “We’ve seen an
opportunity in the market. When we are free of our obligation to
MyTravel, we’ll launch our new business.”