A DROITWICH travel company has unveiled impressive plans which will see it double the size of its business in the town and bring in more than 50 jobs.
HotelshopUK was first launched in the Spa in 1999 at 28 High Street with four people and by 2007 had increased its workforce to 27.
But disaster struck in the summer of that year when it was caught up in the flooding of the town centre. The back-up computer it had introduced a month before containing all of its data was halfway through a download when everything was submerged in 10ft of water, meaning the firm lost everything and had to start again from scratch.
Owner Vivienne Findlay said: “It was absolutely devastating – our main concern at that point was to ensure people kept their jobs.”
It was following those floods that the company moved to the ‘Brine Well House’ building it still occupies on Tower Hill.
Mrs Findlay said it took more than two years to fully recover and it was not until 2010 that it started refocusing and building the business back up again.
A board was appointed, including John Leftwich – former corporate vice-president of Microsoft – as non-executive chairman and Peter Veller as a non-executive board member. He was previously the chief executive of Birmingham International Airport.
Now, six years on, planning permission has just been given for the company to double the size of its 28 High Street building and, as well as moving back into there, it will also be keeping the Tower Hill premises which is just a stone’s throw away.
It is anticipated work will begin next year and the building will be occupied by 2018, although all that could change if the need for the extra space comes before then. HotelshopUK is waiting to hear about a number of large contracts that are currently at the tendering stage and, if that happens, more people will be needed to take calls in its ‘customer hub’.
Impressively, 90 per cent of HotelshopUK’s workforce live in Worcestershire and 60 per cent of them have been there for five years or more.
The company also has a system whereby it takes on students during the summer holidays who return to the company each summer of their three or four-year course. That enables parents working for HotelshopUK to take time off to spend with their children during the six-week break.
The company has also just launched its ‘Great Little Breaks’ which has included its first TV advertisements and last year, employees were set a 15/15 challenge – to raise £15,000 for two charities in the firm’s 15th year.
In fact, a total of £18,030 was collected for two charities – The Little Princess Trust, selected because one of the staff members’ daughters suffered with childhood leukaemia, and an orphanage in Guyana. The orphanage was started by the mum of staff member Claire Murray and her uncle still lives out there.
On February 18, a team of eight employees are heading out to go and do some work at the Guyana orphanage.
Currently, HotelshopUK has three or four vacancies for call-takers in its customer hub, particularly those who speak French as it has a big French contract in the pipeline, a post for a strategic marketing manager for its Great Little Breaks and vacancies in the accounts department.
For more, visit http://www.hotelshopuk.com/contact-us or call 01905 792820.
