Spear Travels plans to open its travel agencies in early July.
The miniple said it was in “no rush” but admitted the situation was under weekly review following the government’s green light for non-essential retailers to reopen in mid-June.
Group managing director Peter Cookson said a 25-point action plan had already been put together in preparation while all personal protective equipment and desk screens had been ordered for the staff and shops.
The date for reopening shops will depend on competition on the high-street but Cookson stressed that working for home and holding Zoom meetings with clients was operating “really well, so we are not in a rush” to re-open.
When shops do re-open it will be with a locked door policy, appointments only and allowing only one customer in the shop at a time for limited slots of around 20 minutes. Shops will also be open shorter hours and be manned just by shop managers, who are not on furlough.
He said: “All enquiries will preferably be handled as now on the phone or email or Zoom wherever possible, rather than coming into the shop. We will handle the enquiry remotely if we can.
He added: “Some shops will find it harder to open more widely, initially, due to child care issues mostly, and we may well open different days in different shops, including Saturday mornings, dependent on what else is happening in the town.
“But we would not anticipate expanding the staffing to more than two people per shop for some time, certainly two or three months, maybe on a rota basis, and bearing in mind furlough requirements.”
