Hotelplan Group is to close its office in Godalming and cut up to 27% of its staff across all its British operators.
The Swiss-based group, which owns Inghams, Ski Total, Esprit Ski, Flexiski, Inntravel and Explore Worldwide, said each of the operators would become “smaller and more focused in the short-term” as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Hotelplan UK is proposing that the Godalming office, which is home to Inghams, Ski Total, Esprit Ski, Flexiski and Santa’s Lapland, should close.
Staff from those brands would eventually move into Explore’s existing headquarters in Farnborough. Initially teams will “continue to work from home until the Farnborough office can safely accommodate both businesses”. Inntravel is based in a separate office near York.
A 45-day consultation process on these proposed changes and redundancies will begin on 1 July, with similar plans being proposed at Hotelplan’s other operations in Europe.
Hotelplan UK chief executive Paul Carter said: “The ongoing impact of Covid-19 means we will endure heavy losses this year, whereby previously we’ve always been profitable. As news of job losses across the industry intensifies, it is now clear that the damage will be significant.
“Throughout this process, we have done everything we can to protect jobs for as long as possible, including reviewing our brand portfolio, product range and office footprint, whilst above all protecting our award winning service.
“However, looking beyond the support of the UK job retention scheme, we face a set of circumstances where this is not enough to sustain us and we have exhausted all other options.”