Co-operative Travel call centre to close
Apollo Travel Direct, a member of Co-operative Travel Group, is to cease operating in Rotherham from April 3.
The agent’s director of distribution Alistair Rowland said: “It is with the deepest regret that after a long period of careful consideration we have taken the decision to close the call centre in Rotherham.
“Fulfilment of third party business – the mainstay of Apollo’s operations – is no longer sustainable for agents, and the situation is unlikely to improve going forward. As such, the business model of Apollo Travel Direct has become untenable.
“It is with great reluctance that we have taken the decision to cease operations, which will result in a number of redundancies.”
Apollo Travel Direct employs 150 staff at offices on Rawmarsh Road.
All staff have entered in to a consultation period, and it is hoped that alternative positions can be found for a number of staff in other areas of the travel business, such as Medinland in Sheffield, high street travel branches and the homeworking division Future Travel.
The Rotherham branch of Co-operative Travel Management, which shares its offices with Apollo Travel, is unaffected by the closure.
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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