More office closures as lastminute continues restructure

Friday, 06 Dec, 2005 0

Lastminute is to close its Camberley office as management continue to re-shape the business following the summer sale to Travelocity.

All 250 finance and sales team are expected to relocate to Woking, only 12 miles from the current Camberley office.

UK managing director Mark Jones said the “successful redeployment” of staff should be complete by April. It will, he said, end “the challenges of a fragmented organisation.”

“We do not expect to make any positions redundant as a result of this relocation,” he stressed.

Jones added it made sense to have “one cohesive business unit” in Woking rather than two separate locations just a few miles apart.

“It is a major step forward in our development,” he said. “The acquisitions made by lastminute have resulted in unrivalled products and specialist brands, but with the challanges of a fragmented organisation.

“I am delighted we can now look forward to the benefits of having all our trade and B2B businesses in the same location as our core sales, operations and finance functions.”

The combined lastminute and Travelocity business – that will be known as lastminute across Europe – has already announced the closure of Travelocity’s Stansted office.

Around 25 of the 85 staff have either left or taken redundancy. Others are expected to relocate to lastminute’s London office.

Under a management shake-up, Jones will take overall responsibility for lastminute.com, travelocity.co.uk, Medhotels, holidayandmore, Globepost and Travelbargains in addition to lastminute’s B2B and while label sales activity.

Former Travelocity MD Ned Booth will report into Jones and continue to oversee all sales, marketing and operations for the brand.

Offline sales and operational functions will be merged with lastminute by the end of December.

Meanwhile, Matt Hart will become UK marketing director for both lastminute and travelocity.

In a further move, Sabre vice president strategic sales and marketing Stuart Nassos will head-up Holiday Autos UK.

Report by Steve Jones