Accounting issues blamed for Leisure Direction failure
Specialist tour operator Leisure Direction has been placed into administration, with 18,000 forward bookings.
Administrators Menzies Corporate Restructuring said the company was profitable, but an initial assessment showed that the business had some accounting issues last year which led it to reschedule a substantial number of payments to creditors, at the end of January.
“Unfortunately, the directors were unable to meet some of these repayments and had to place the company into administration,” said Menzies partner Paul Clark,
Based in Tottenham Hale, London, Leisure Direction was set up 21 years ago and, on average, took bookings from around 35,000 customers each year.
The company, run by Alan Potts, employed 50 staff and its most recent annual turnover was £15 million.
The company was a registered ATOL holder and registered ABTA licence holder, trading under a number of names, including French Impressions, French Holiday Service, EuroDrive, Alliance Travel, The Travel Alliance, and Faresavers.
The company also operated The Travel Shop at Maidstone Motorway Service Area, at Junction 8 of the M20.
Leger Holidays confirmed it has taken over short breaks and DisneyLand Paris forward bookings, which represents the bulk of the total.
Erna Low confirmed it has acquired the operator’s forward ski holiday business and its database, accepting responsibility for almost 500 holidays in Leisure Direction’s 2008 ski programme.
It said these holidays are predominantly accommodation-only and self-drive ski holiday packages to resorts in France where Erna Low has established relationships with suppliers.
Jane Bolton, Erna Low managing director, said: “This is merely a transfer of responsibilities between one travel company to another and there is no cause for concern.”
Clark said: “Selling the majority of the company’s assets will enhance the possibility of outstanding passenger holidays being fulfilled, of which there were approximately 18,000 at the time of our appointment.
“I’m sure that Leger Holidays and Erna Low will endeavour to assist Leisure Direction passengers with holidays already booked.”
Leisure Direction also sold camping and self-catering holidays.
Menzies said all customers who have booked camping and self-catering holidays should await further details regarding their holidays.
Leisure Direction also used to trade under a series of ‘Best of’ names, but these were purchased by Best of Travel Ltd in April 2007.
Best of Travel managing director Eli Idrissi said although the two companies operate from the same building, his companies were trading as normal.
These include Best of France, Best of Greece, Best of Cyprus, Best of Portugal, Best of Turkey, Best of Spain, Best of Italy, and Best of Cruising.
“We used to work together 20 years ago, but we bought the specialist division from them as it was a separate busines,” he said.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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