Two members of the senior team at Thornton’s Travel have taken a majority share of the business.
Former general manager Sarah Kelley and former financial controller Lee Morse have acquired a majority shareholding of the business, for an undisclosed sum, following Carol Wootton’s decision to retire earlier this year.
The firm has business travel, leisure travel and cruise divisions and acquired Chew Valley Travel in 2006.
Kelley, a director, said: “I believe there are fantastic opportunities ahead in travel and Thornton’s is ideally placed to grow and explore this.
“With our well-known brand, specialist staff, complete travel solution and the confidence and trust of those whom we deal with, we are ideally placed to develop the business further.”
Former managing director of the 75-year-old company, Patrick Murphy, was appointed in 1979 after joining the company in 1967.
Thornton’s was the first to operate a charter flight to New York from Bristol and brought Concorde into Filton, Cardiff and Exeter for the first time, for day trips around the bay of Biscay, and breaks to Paris and New York.
Murphy continued to manage Thornton’s Travel until his death in 2011.
Thornton’s Travel employs 22 staff across its two locations.