Jobs have been cut at tour operators Superbreak Mini-Holidays and Explore as part of a £2 million cost-cutting exercise by parent company Holidaybreak.
Around 20% of Superbreak’s workforce has been axed. Most of these jobs, part of around 150 redundancies announced in November (Travel Weekly, December 2, 2008) were from its call centre, while further savings have come from merging of IT departments.
Group chief executive Carl Michel said: “We have now reached a sensible level but we would still look to trim numbers by natural attrition and not filling vacancies.”
Cuts at adventure tour operator Explore have resulted in around 20 redundancies, while marketing spend has been paired back and adventure travel division managing director Simon Tobin is to step down at the end of this month. Michel will become non-executive director of this division, with individual managing directors in the division to report directly into him.
The group’s interim management statement for the period from October 1, 2008, to February 17, 2009, revealed overall group sales to be 0.5% up at current exchange rates, with sales propped up by stronger bookings in its European markets and robust education travel sales.
Hotel sales are 10% down, adventure sales are 1% on lower volumes, while camping sales are 5% down on a capacity cut of 4%. Education sales are 13% up.
More details at travolution.co.uk