Staff at collapsed holiday firm left '˜shocked and angry'

A salesman for the holiday firm Lowcost Travelgroup which went into administration on Friday has spoken of his anger and shock at the collapse of the company.
Outside shot of Spectrum House after Lowcost Holidays firm has gone bust. Pic Steve Robards.  SR1621900 SUS-160718-170343001Outside shot of Spectrum House after Lowcost Holidays firm has gone bust. Pic Steve Robards.  SR1621900 SUS-160718-170343001
Outside shot of Spectrum House after Lowcost Holidays firm has gone bust. Pic Steve Robards. SR1621900 SUS-160718-170343001

More than 130,000 holidaymakers have been affected and 120 staff at the company’s headquarters in Crawley have been made redundant.

A salesman for the firm who has lost his job and does not want to be named, said: “I feel absolutely horrible that I booked a holiday for someone at 1pm on Friday afternoon and two hours later was told that was it.

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“I’m disgusted that the company knew there was a statement coming out that must have been written some time in advance.

“I feel sorry for the customers. We didn’t know this was coming. I went to work that day as normal and was just doing my job.

“I feel let down and the customers have been let down.”

He said a statement from the company, announcing that it was going into administration, was read out to staff during a telephone conference call at 3.30 pm on Friday.

“There was nothing unusual about the conference call, we had them regularly,” he said. “But then were were told what was happening.

“It came completely out of the blue.”

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He said even his line managers were not made aware of the company’s situation until about half an hour before the call.

“The sales manager gave me a task to do over the weekend and told me to have it done by Monday, so even he didn’t know.”

The man, who worked from home selling Lowcost holidays, said that none of the salespeople had been paid and were owed around six weeks’ salary which they might not receive because they were classed as company creditors.

He and other salesmen, along with staff at Lowcost’s head office in Crawley, are now all looking for work.