However, so impressed was Mark Lomas – joint managing director of three-time TTG Top 50 agency Market Place Travel – with the site in the quaint market town of Richmond, he and co-MD Karen Brown decided to go ahead and lease it.
The shop will operate separately from the agency’s other branch in Burton-on-Trent – more than 100 miles back down the road in Staffordshire.
"I walked into Richmond town centre one day and I saw this business unit,” he told TTG. “It was never the plan to open another store, but if we didn’t open here – and someone else did – then I would have been gutted.
"In the space of a few days, our plans had completely changed.”
Lomas, though, believes opening the shop in Richmond, prime minister Rishi Sunak’s constituency, was "meant to be" with the new agency’s street address – 25 Market Place – set to match its name.
“The address obviously ties into the branding that we have," said Lomas of the agency, which will open in early December. “It’s all a bit scary because the Burton branch does so well – if this [Richmond] store does a fifth of the bookings Burton does, I will be happy.”
Lomas moved to Richmond to live with his partner around four months ago. “There’s a huge farming community here so there’s money floating around, and then you have Catterick about eight miles away,” he added.
Thomas Cook and latterly Hays Travel have previously operated the premises as a travel agency, but the last business to occupy the unit was a bakery, Lomas said.
“So many people have come up to me and said how brilliant it is that there will be travel agency here in Richmond again,” he added.
While the Richmond shop will offer the same products as Market Place Travel’s Burton branch and share the agency’s branding, the two stores will have their own distinct Facebook presences.
"Social media is huge for us,” said Lomas. “We’ve got 26,000 followers on Facebook, and I’ve never spent a penny boosting advertising. It’s a good position to be in."
Recruitment drive
Confirming the agency is looking to hire new staff, Lomas continued: “Richmond is around two-and-a-half hours away from Burton, so we won’t be merging the staff. The two shops will be part of the same business, but they’ll be managed separately.
“We’re looking for five sales staff initially, with a minimum of three years’ industry experience.”
Explaining his stance, he added: “Our sales staff need to know what they’re talking about.”
Lomas said the business was looking to hire trainees to work in each store, but wanted to open the Richmond branch first before expanding the recruitment drive.
“With just two stores, we can control everything easily,” he said. “I used to work for Thomas Cook and it’s a whole different ball game when you open your own business.”
