The staff at Beaver Travel are clearly doing something right. The luxury specialist agency has just scooped the National All Star of the Year award at the Aito Agents conference for the second year running. The award is based on the retailer’s sales of tour operators in Aito’s All Stars scheme. Beaver Travel also took home Aito Agents’ South of England All Star award.
And these are not the only awards filling up the agency’s trophy cabinet. It has an expanding collection of awards from individual tour operators – among them Carrier’s National Agent Of The Year title for the past decade and Lusso’s Agent of the Year award for the past few years.
Andrew Devine, who co-owns the business with Gary Green, admitted: “We are running out of wall space for the certificates, without sounding big-headed.”
He has no doubt why the agency is a regular award winner; it focuses on a small number of luxury suppliers with whom it has built up strong relationships and has a knowledgeable and dedicated team of sales staff.
“We support certain suppliers with a high level of business. We have long-standing relationships with suppliers that have the same philosophy as us; looking after the client. And the reason we win is because we have an amazing team. They are dedicated, loyal and knowledgeable,” he says.
The awards recognise the time and effort put into driving up sales but don’t lead to complacency, he adds. “It never takes the edge off when you win another award. You always strive to be the best.”
Under Andrew and Gary’s ownership the agency has specialised in luxury travel, moving to larger, refurbished high street premises in 1998, with a less formal shop environment including sofas and glass pods.
Its success – it now has a large national client base and also boasts a business travel company and sports specialist brand Pro Sports Travel – is driven by word-of-mouth recommendations,
says Andrew.
“Not a day goes by without a customer saying we have been recommended,” he adds.
And for Andrew, the buzz of a new sale is as good now as it was when he started as a trainee 25 years ago.
“Travel is in my blood. I still get excited by every new sale,” he says.