Special Report: Former Baldwins staff praise support of Premier Travel

Former Baldwins Travel staff have spoken of their relief that life is “back to normal” under Premier Travel after the challenging period in which their previous employer ceased trading.

 

Premier Travel took over three of the defunct agency’s stores and staff in August and has since reopened the Maidstone and Uckfield branches, with Tonbridge due to follow “in due course”.

All three shops have undergone a refurbishment and staff have been trained on Premier’s booking system.

Kirsty Alston has returned as manager of the Maidstone branch, working with two former colleagues from the same shop and one from Baldwins’ Sevenoaks store.

She said: “After a few days it felt like we were back to normal and since reopening we’ve had old clients come in and say they are so pleased to see us all. We are having to rely on people coming back in and seeing we are open; we are trying to get the message out that it’s still the same staff here.”

Alston added: “Premier Travel has been amazing; they kept in contact with us throughout the summer about everything that was going on. The support behind the scenes has been mindboggling.”

 

Uckfield manager Emma Harris, who previously managed the Haywards Heath branch and has a team of four staff, agreed: “They have looked after us and been very approachable. We’re happy to be [back] working. I went to a [Premier Travel] managers’ meeting and they were lovely and very welcoming.”

‘More potential jobs’

Speaking at Travel Weekly’s Future of Travel Conference, Premier Travel managing director Paul Waters said there is “potential” for more former Baldwins staff to join the agency, saying: “There are a few [members of staff] in the pipeline that will potentially come back to us.”

Waters explained how he approached Baldwins staff about the possibility of making the switch as their employment became increasingly precarious.

“It was the people [Baldwins staff] we were really concerned about because they were left in the lurch, not knowing whether they had jobs, or where they were going,” he said.

“I went down to see a number of them in April and started having conversations with them and saw they were a fantastic team of people with lots of experience.” 

 

Waters praised the efforts of Tricia Lester, former Baldwins Travel marketing and commercial manager, now Ashdown Travel head of retail, who helped staff land new jobs.

Those employees, including Alston and Harris, received a message via Microsoft Teams on May 12 telling them not to come back into work. Baldwins subsequently ceased trading after more than 30 years in business and was officially wound up at a High Court hearing in July.

Alston, who worked for Baldwins for 19 years, said staff were “left in limbo” between May and July, unsure whether they could take on a new job prior to the court hearing and without their P45 certificates.

Staff were officially made redundant at the end of June and have since received redundancy and holiday pay but did not receive wages for May and June, she added.

‘Not handled well’

“It was a difficult time for all the staff and sad for the company to end up at this point. Baldwins had always had a good name and I was proud to work for them,” she said, but admitted: “It was not handled well; the communications were disappointing.

“We were uncertain whether we could sign new job contracts. It was very stressful for everyone.”

Harris agreed: “It was just the correspondence and being kept in the dark on what was happening. We all had bills and we didn’t know whether we were getting paid.

“But we made it through; now we want to forget it all happened and look forward to the future.”