Scottish travel agent plans new Stockport branch

Scottish travel agent, Barrhead Travel, plan to open a new branch in Stockport as part of their expansion plans for 2020.

Glasgow-based Barrhead Travel has been trading for 44 years, and the Stockport branch comes as part of a plan to increase the company’s branch network by twenty stores by March 2020: at least nine of which will be in towns and cities across North-west of England.  Travel Leaders Group acquired the family-run business in 2018.

The travel agent plans to open other stores in Birkenhead, Doncaster, Darlington and Newcastle-under-Lyme. These follow the announcement of seven other planned openings in October, including Liverpool, Widnes, Wallasey, Burnley, Northwich, Warrington and on the Isle of Wight.

Staff have already begun training for the new branches, where many are already accepting bookings online. Barrhead Travel’s Stockport store is due to open in January 2020, traditionally the busiest time of year for the travel sector.

The opening will follow the closure of Thomas Cook in September, whose former senior managers have been recruited to Barrhead Travel to lead the store expansion project. Many former Thomas Cook employees have joined the group to work at the new branches across the country.

Jacqueline Dobson, president of Barrhead Travel, said:

As we prepare to launch our first 20 stores before the end of quarter one, we’re drawing on resources from existing Barrhead Travel employees as well as our new expansion team. We have a project team who are working hard to support the opening of our new branches and it’s exciting to see each launch take shape. We are continuing to make sure that putting people first is at the centre of our strategy as we accelerate our expansion plans.

“Training has been prioritised for our new-starts to help immerse them into our brand. It was also really exciting to welcome some of our new managers to both our managers and partner conferences which were held last month.”