Seaside Travel to expand with UK-wide homeworking division

Fast-growing agency chain Seaside Travel has recruited former Hays Travel homeworking director John Milburn to run a new UK-wide homeworking division.

The new arm of the company will be called ‘Seaside At Home’ and is targeting 10-20 homeworkers by the end of the year, with plans to scale further after that.

The northeast retail chain, which was named Medium High Street Travel Agency of the Year at the Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards earlier this month, said it had been inundated with requests from agents about the possibility of joining as homeworkers.

Owner Nicola Park said: “I’d always thought about it, but when I met up with John and discovered he was looking to get back into travel, it was a no-brainer.”

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Milburn worked for Hays for 19 years, latterly as homeworking and marketing director. He left three years ago to become chief marketing officer at Holiday Best, where he stayed for two years before deciding he was unable to continue with regular commuting to Essex.

Having returned to the northeast, he most recently worked as a media account director outside travel.

The new Seaside head of homeworking said: “I’ve known and loved Nicola for 21 years and the opportunity to work for Seaside Travel, which is still a family-run business and a really trusted brand, is so exciting.”

Asked how Seaside would differentiate its homeworking offering in a crowded marketplace, he added: “We want to keep it simple initially as we know we’re launching into a well-populated space.

“But we have identified some gaps so we will be building in some add-ons and will be able to offer our homeworkers more options. Some will be around the after-sales processes, others around equipment and technical support for example.

“But the key thing is getting the foundations right. We’ll then take on our first cohort, understand their needs and then adapt as we go. It’s a really flat structure at Seaside so we’re confident we can be flexible to meet everyone’s needs.”

Milburn, whose official start date is August 4, expects to take on established travel homeworkers initially, but said he would look at how he could attract and support the ‘new to travel’ market in time.

He said: “I expect we’ll naturally get traction initially in the northeast, but this will be UK-wide and we’ll be happy to hear from anyone who is interested in working with Seaside.

“Seaside has had a good run of award wins recently and so we know there is a good pool of people interested in both joining the stores and in homeworking for the group.”

Park added: “Anyone who joins, I want them to feel like Seasiders; part of the Seaside family.”

Seaside Travel has been running for 22 years but has grown rapidly from four to 13 shops since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“After Covid I was just so frightened but I went to the Jet2holidays conference where the theme was ‘Fight or Flight’ and it really resonated with me,” Park said.

“I decided I needed to move my arse and grow. But I will always know the first and second names and all about my people. If I don’t, I’ll get out.

“It’s because of this that I think we can bring something different to homeworking which other companies can’t and we’re galloping with excitement about it.”

Milburn said he would look to take on some business development support once the first cohort of homeworkers are established.