Ten former Baldwins Travel staff, including its marketing and commercial manager Lester, have joined Surrey’s Ashdown Travel as it prepares to expand into Kent with new shops in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks opening “in the next couple of weeks”.
Lester took up the position of head of retail at Ashdown Travel on Thursday 24 July and will be based in its new Tunbridge Wells shop when it opens.
She told TTG she had been working with Ashdown – a member of the Advantage Travel Partnership – for “a couple of months” to find new jobs for nine ex-Baldwins employees after the agency approached her on LinkedIn.
“I’m not going to lie, discussing plans with Ashdown has kept me going through the [winding up] process," said Lester. "I was at Baldwins for 36 years so this has kept me going. I’ve been putting this team together for the past couple of months – we can now all move forward.”
Asked how others ex-Baldwins employees were getting on finding new employment, Lester said: “At the end of it, everybody will have a new job.
"The people who were not due redundancy have found jobs elsewhere. Some of us were waiting for our redundancy number. Everyone apart from one has found another job in travel. We were all desperate to keep selling travel.”
In May, TTG revealed Welwyn-based Off Broadway Travel had hired three Baldwins agents.
Claire Meakins, a former Baldwins assistant branch manager, will become the manager of Ashdown Travel’s new Tunbridge Wells shop, while Hayley Noon, a former Baldwins branch manager in Sevenoaks, will become the manager of an Ashdown branch in the same town.
Nikky Kirkup, another ex-Baldwins staff member who was based at its Westerham branch, has taken up a senior sales consultant role with Ashdown Travel. She will be based at the agency’s Oxted branch. The ex-Baldwins staff who will work in Ashdown’s two new shops are currently working from home, Lester explained.
"We’re hoping to open the shops in two or three weeks’ time,” she continued. “We’ve taken on the lease of Baldwins Travel’s Sevenoaks shop, while the Tunbridge Wells branch is a former clothes shop. A sizeable sum has been invested by Ashdown Travel.”
Lester confirmed all three Ashdown Travel branches will receive investment, including the Oxted shop where the agency was founded in 1985. A “soft launch” for the shops has been scheduled for September.
An Ashdown Travel spokesperson said: "We are thrilled to be expanding our presence and investing in high streets at a time when personalised travel expertise is more valued than ever.
"Welcoming Tricia and her talented colleagues to our team strengthens our position as we broaden our reach and reinforce our reputation as a trusted, independent agency for today’s travellers."
