Nelson founded Admiral Travel, a member of the Hays Travel Independence Group, in Altrincham 24 years ago, and has gone on to expand it to five shops across Cheshire and Cumbria – the latest being in the market town of Wilmslow.
"We have brochures on the shelves for UK coach operators as well as brochures for high-end holidays too,” he said.
The new branch opened a week ahead of schedule last week on so-called Sunshine Saturday, and Nelson said it was well received by residents excited to have a mainstream travel retailer back in the town.
"We took our first booking at about 9.30am, 9.45am on the Saturday and throughout the weekend, we took a lot of enquiries – some of which we have since converted into bookings,” he explained.
Over the past couple of weeks, the agency’s five members of staff have packaged around 12 holidays – a mix of long- and short-haul, ski and escorted tours, as well as some higher-value bookings.
“When you put all your eggs in one basket, you do very well when it’s boom time and not so well when it’s not," Nelson said. “By covering every area, we’re then in a position to do very well whatever the market is doing.”
Nelson said he only sought experienced travel staff for the new branch, stressing he needed to be confident everyone knew what they were doing. "First impressions count," he added.
Looking ahead, Nelson hasn’t ruled out further expansion, but stressed it would only happen once the new Wilmslow branch and other four shops are performing well and are cashflow positive.
"I don’t have a date by which we have to open a new branch,” he said. “It’s a question of seeing how each of the shops perform and if they need a guiding hand. We are certainly open to opening other branches, but everything is controlled by cashflow."
