Call centre Just Cruise was set up in Larbert, Stirlingshire, after its founder (listed as Phil Ginn on Companies House) sold his previous business, The Cruise Specialists, to Barrhead Travel in 2012.

“When he approached us a couple of years ago we were very happy to take him on as a member,” John Hays, managing director of Hays Travel, told TTG.

“He had a track record of running a successful business and he appeared to be trading fine – on an annualised basis he had built his business to £6.5 million [the last 12 months turnover] and for a new start-up that’s really good.

“A couple of weeks ago we just took a call out of the blue, and we were really shocked by his decision to close the company.

“I looked at the figures and everything looked great – he hasn’t run out of money.

“He said was that he was concerned about the cost of acquisition of new customers because they use PPC a lot for their website. He just felt that the cost was looking as though it was going to be

too great.”

Hays pressed that this had been a “managed close down” and not a failure. “He as an owner just felt he didn’t want to continue,” said Hays. “It was an unusual situation – normally we can see this sort of thing on the horizon.”

Hays Travel Group is administrating all the bookings for Just Cruise and has contacted all the clients, who won’t lose any money.

Hays has also taken on two of Just Cruise’s four sellers as employed homeworkers.

“It’s really sad that it’s happened but we appear to have acquired a couple of really good sellers,” added Hays.

The business has also taken on Just Cruise’s marketing manager Gillian Henderson, who Hays said is “really well regarded in the cruise industry”.

The company also offered Just Cruise’s managing director a role, which she decided not to take up.

Hays added: “They [Just Cruise] were really growing.

“We love nurturing start ups, and looking at the sales figures we thought it was really growing in the right direction.”