Holiday Extras buys Purple Parking brand and website
Holiday Extras has bought Purple Parking’s brand and website after Purple Parking failed to secure a buyer for the whole business.
The parking specialist had been looking for a buyer since losing a major site at Heathrow earlier this year. The 10,000-space car park at Heathrow is due to be returned to Berkley Homes for development in December.
Southall-based Purple Parking’s 36 booking agency staff are transferring immediately to Holiday Extras under TUPE regulations. Holiday Extras group CEO Matthew Pack said he hoped some of them would be found jobs within Holiday Extras.
He said Holiday Extras already employs people who work from home and across the UK but stressed it had no plans to open an office in the Southall/Heathrow area.
It is, however, signficantly expanding its teams at its head office in Kent.
All Purple Parking bookings made from today will be taken on by Holiday Extras and Pack said Holiday Extras was working closely with suppliers in a bid to make sure all existing bookings are honoured.
He said the number of bookings was in the tens of thousands.
Duff and Phelps have been appointed administrators for Purple Parking, a family-run company which has been trading since 1925 and has other strands to its business.
All senior staff have stepped down, except for operations director Peter Shaw who will join Holiday Extras.
Pack said he hoped the overall transfer would be as smooth as possible.
"Our acquisition of Purple Parking’s online assets is focused on providing continuity of service for Purple Parking’s customers, suppliers and distributors," he said.
He said the Purple Parking brand would be retained and would give Holiday Extras more exclusive product.
Purple Parking’s brand will stay ‘for some time’ on two more sites at Heathrow and another at Gatwick, which are operated by Q-Park.
Customers with any questions are advised to call Holiday Extras on 0800 083 9689.
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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