Aspire Travel opened its second shop in the Northamptonshire town of Thrapston last month, less than a year after its first opened its doors on the high street in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire.
Owner and managing director Kelly Baldwin has recruited an operations executive to support customers with their bookings, and now plans to hire an operations assistant, as well as another travel consultant, to continue converting new business.
She also confirmed to TTG she is planning to open a third and fourth shop in the coming months.
Once both operations staff members are settled into their new roles, Baldwin wants them to “watch and shadow” Aspire's eight existing travel consultants so they can start selling holidays within the next 12 months.
“With Cottenham, I was a bit anxious before opening about how many people would actually turn up," she told TTG. "We lost count at the Thrapston opening [on 16 August] after 121 walk-ins. Then we ran out of drinks and food.
"Thrapston has already covered its overheads for the next 12 months – we had 32 bookings in the week after it opened.”
'I'm surprised I've not lost my mind'
Baldwin said around 40 people knocked on the door to ask questions about the business before the Thrapston shop had even opened.
“We’ve currently got 145 enquiries with a total value of £750,000 across Cottenham and Thrapston," Baldwin revealed. "We’ve just taken on another travel consultant to deal with the demand.
"We’ve got too many enquiries for the team to deal with. In the past six weeks, we’ve had 440 departures. I’ve been contacting hotels, dealing with enquiries and making sure they actually get on the plane and have a good time while in resort. I’m surprised I’ve not lost my mind.”
Baldwin founded Aspire Travel – part of Not Just Travel – in 2022 but quickly realised she and her team needed a base. Back then, they would meet every Wednesday at a local pub. “We would also meet customers in pubs and coffee shops,” explained Baldwin. “But my team said they wanted a base."
Aspire Travel has expanded to the Northamptonshire town of Thrapston (Credit: Aspire Travel)
Baldwin continued: "So we opened on Cottenham High Street last year and it covered the cost of running it for a full year on the very first day. The landlord has just said to me the lease is up and I thought to myself, 'how has it been a year already?'."
Baldwin said her team started noticing customers from Northamptonshire were making enquiries, which led to conversations about opening a shop, the agency's second, in the market town of Thrapston. “One of the travel consultants lives there and she found a business unit,” Baldwin said.
However, before taking out a lease, Baldwin reached out to other agency bosses to get a better grasp on what it would take for a business of Aspire's size to add a second shop to its network.
Baldwin regularly speaks to Seaside Travel owner Nicola Park, Perfect Getaways managing director Dave Palmer and Beverley Travel co-owner Kelly Cheesman for advice at events or via Facebook.
“These are the people I talk to all the time,” she said. “Two years ago, at the Classic Collection awards, I said I wanted to be there as an award winner – this year, I won agent of the year. While I was there, I showed Nicola and her partner Barry [Coatman] the plans for the Thrapston shop.
“They jokingly said that if I did take the lease, they would. It was them basically saying I should go for it.”
'It's been wonderful'
Baldwin said Aspire Travel’s turnover is £11 million a year with a repeat rate "in the 70s". "We’re already being recognised a bit at awards, but people are saying ‘why are you not entering more categories?’. The reality is I’ve not got the time."
Baldwin said she takes “a lot of pride” from these comments given she’s not got an extensive travel background. “I used to work in recruitment – people interest me. I used to work with business coaches.
“I give my team specific targets – they’re always like, 'we’re never going to do that', but we always smash it. I took the risk of going from a vibrant homeworking business to this. I knew it had to be busy. It’s been wonderful.”
Aspire Travel owner Kelly Baldwin with her team and the mayor of Thrapston Craig Wheeler (Credit: Aspire Travel)
Prior to the Thrapston opening, the team hit the high street to raise awareness of the upcoming new shop, which is when they met the town's new mayor Craig Wheeler.
They invited Wheeler along to the launch, but he was forced to send his deputy owing to being away on a Tui holiday to Croatia when the shop opened, although he later made it along.
Upon learning about his break, Baldwin and the team arranged a welcome banner to go on his hotel bed and for other gifts to be sent, as well as a meal at “special venue”.
"He later told us that even though he had booked his trip with Tui, he would book with us in future," Baldwin added.
