Ski specialist VIP Ski has ceased trading and filed for administration, with managing director Andy Sturt hitting out at the government’s "incoherent, inconsistent and sometimes deeply unhelpful advice" in a heartfelt parting note published on the firm’s website on Tuesday (17 November).
Mark Supperstone and Simon Jagger of ReSolve Advisory Limited have been appointed joint administrators of APS-Select Limited, which traded as VIP Ski under Atol 3556. The business was authorised for just over 8,000 Atol-protected passengers.
"The company has ceased to trade with immediate effect," read a post on VIP Ski website entitled, "we are so sorry, our doors have closed", with Sturt adding in a longer note addressed to colleagues, guests, landlords and partners the decision to place the business in administration was "without doubt the hardest" of his life.
"I never considered VIP Ski as my business, but rather a community of people and skiers," said Sturt.
"Hundreds of thousands of guests, tens of thousands of colleagues, landlords, partners and suppliers, many of whom have become close friends, drawn together over the last thirty years around a common love of skiing and unbridled enjoyment in happy selfless service.
"Until the very end, I have always cared deeply about everyone who has been a part of this journey and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart."