Saga confirms 300 redundancies

Saga has confirmed around 300 staff are to lose their jobs, affecting both the travel and insurance arms.

Regional Manager for Scotland Jason Kemp is understood to be among those who have been made redundant.

Jason joined Saga from Balkan Holidays in November 2018. Writing on the Facebook group Travel Gossip today, many agents said they felt it was short-sighted of companies to let reps go, pointing out that they’re the ones of the frontline, training agents and providing company updates.

Agent Helen Byers wrote: "I have got to say that I think many of these companies making reps redundant now is short sighted… these guys are the front of your business, these are the people who are out training our staff, and providing regular updates on what’s going on and deals for us to sell. Without that how are you looking to move forward? We have plenty of folk booking, especially for winter onwards, so we need these guys to get back out on social media feeding us your deals."

Another said reps should be the last to go. "At the end of the day it’s the reps that go out the companies to spur up interest in the business… It’s the reps that have all the product knowledge to train agents in how to actually sell their product."

Another wrote: "Very sad to see our fantastic reps all being made redundant but companies are looking at the bottom line and see it an easy way to cut their overheads – sadly not looking at the bigger picture as they are the staff that promote and consequently sell the product for them through us. We need them to be sending out offers to us to help us to get interest in their product – very sad times."

What does Saga say?

In a statement, Saga said: "As part of our ongoing focus on improving efficiency within the business and against the backdrop of the continued suspension of travel due to Covid-19, we have started a process that will see a number of colleagues leave Saga.

"We appreciate this will be a difficult time for all of our colleagues and are focused on ensuring they receive all the support they need."

Saga announced in February that it was looking at ways to improve performance and cost efficiency.

Revenue at the over-50s specialist fell 5.2% to just under £800 million in 2019 and after-tax losses nearly doubled to £312.8m.

Saga appointed a new CEO, Euan Sutherland, in January to replace Lance Batchelor who retired.

By Linsey McNeill, Editor (UK)