Member Article

Hays Travel takes on 100 apprentices, bringing total staff to 1,000

Hays Travel has recently taken on 100 apprentices, 25 of which are based in the Sunderland headquarters in Vine Place.

The company, which now employs 1,000 staff, signed its first franchise deal in August with North West retailers Thomson-First Choice travel, which will be renamed as Hays Travel.

The firm has also announced it has acquired another North East travel agent, Jesmond Travel in Newcastle.

The company’s growth spurt follows last year’s takeover of Bath Travel, the largest independent travel agent in the South. The deal brought 60 branches on the South Coast from Brighton to Exeter under the Hays Travel brand and added 360 staff.

The firm, which he started in Seaham in 1980 with just one member of staff, is now targeting a turnover of £1 billion in the next five years. Turnover in the year to July 31 stood at £650m, up from £530m the previous year.

John Hays, chairman of Hays Travel, said: “We’re a major trainer and have won many awards for our training team. We not only train apprentices, with many ending up in senior positions in the organisation, but we are accredited to train our own assessors and award NVQs and other nationally recognised certificates.

John Hays added: “This is our first franchise operation and we are also taking a 40% stake in company in the North. People operating under licence to us is one of the ways forward for us.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .