Alan Potts speaks out about downfall of Leisure Direction
Former Leisure Direction managing director Alan Potts has spoken out about the failure of his business and the new ownership of its website.
Thanking friends and colleagues in the industry for their kind words, Potts said: “It has indeed been a traumatic few months and the sad end to years of hard work for the whole Leisure Direction team who fought tirelessly right to the end.
“For the record, the website was sold by the administrators and the directors of LD have had no part in either its purchase or its ongoing management.
“The choice of name used by the new owners is bound to mislead unwary customers into thinking that the old LD lives on, no doubt an intentional ploy to extract as much value as possible from the excellent online brand we’d built.”
He said Travelmole columnist Jeremy Skidmore was right in saying “no ABTA member could have got away with such a ploy, so it’s a loophole that non-ABTA companies can!”
Potts also stressed that Best of Travel Limited shares were sold in good faith in April/May 2007, with LD retaining a minority stakeholding, several months before LD’s difficulties were discovered.
“I hope this clarifies matters,” 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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