Last-ditch efforts are under way to resurrect failed high street agency Enjoy Holidays under a new name and save 19 jobs.
Enjoy Holidays, which had five branches, collapsed last Wednesday (August 15). Since December 2011 it had been owned by Anex Tourism Group, one of the largest operators in Turkey.
Enjoy Holidays had an £8 million turnover and was run by managing director Ronnie Findlay. It had branches in Chalfont St Peter and Woburn Sands, Milton Keynes. It also operated as Allen Sturges Travel with two outlets in Bedford and one in Flitwick.
Findlay confirmed his wife Nikki, operations manager, hoped to set up a managed service agency, potentially in existing premises if lease agreements could be reached.
“My travel career is over but the staff don’t deserve this,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting someone to allow the business to trade but it’s not easy.”
Flitwick branch manager Jayne Almond said staff had worked unpaid to contact clients and hoped jobs could yet be saved.
“Staff are loyal. Everyone is committed to getting something sorted out so we can come back. We are holding off getting new jobs,” she said.
Findlay spent weeks trying to save the firm, sold in December 2011 to Anex to keep it afloat. “I’m extremely sorry to everybody affected.”
Findlay claimed the collapse was “avoidable” and not due to current trading.
He said he been unable agree a deal with Anex to save Enjoy Holidays. The Turkish firm denied this, claiming it had been sold back to him in June.
A spokesman for Anex said: “We feel sorry for all those who have been affected and that our name has been involved in circumstances for which we are not responsible.”