Ireland’s largest tour operator Budget Travel has confirmed that it is to cut over a third of its workforce over the next few months.
The company said this afternoon that it is intending to close up to 14 of its 31 retails stores with the loss of about 75 jobs. A further 20 or so jobs are to go at the operator's head office.
Budget, which was established in 1975, company currently employs 266 people. It claims to have a 35 per cent market share of the Irish package holiday market.
The company has begun a 30-day consultation process with staff to discuss plans for a ”very significant” restructuring of the business in the coming months.
Speaking this afternoon, Budget Travel's chief executive Eugene Corcoran said that there was a need to reduce the business's cost base while becoming more flexible in order to better respond to customers.
"We need to restructure the business for current and future market conditions in the context of a market where demand for holiday packages will be significantly more volatile from year to year than it has been in recent years," he said.
Mr Corcoran said that a key part of the restructuring would be to drive increased bookings through the internet.
"We're going to increase our investment in our internet offering because customers are demonstrating a clear preference for internet bookings and we're got to reshape our retail business to reflect that," he said.
“Its important to stress that there are absolutely no implications in this announcement for anyone who has made a booking with us or intends to travel with us in the future," he added.
Budget, like many other travel operators has seen demand fall substantially this year. In June, Toolin Travel, which had eight retail branches in Ireland ceased trading while Thomas Cook recently closed a number of stores in Ireland, a situation which led to a sit-in at its office in Grafton Street.
“We estimate that overall demand amongst Irish tour operators is approximately 40 per cent down on last year and our experience reflects that. The key to the future is to have a business model that has maximum flexibility to respond to volatile demand while remaining profitable," concluded Mr Corcoran.
Stores expected to close are in Athlone, Tralee, Clonmel, Waterford, Cork's North Main Street, Mullingar, Dundalk, Ennis Shopping Centre and Limerick's Crescent Shopping Centre. In Dublin, branches at Liffey Street, Swords, Walkinstown, Finglas and the Northside Shopping Centre have also been earmarked for closure.
A Budget Travel spokesman said the stores will be shut down before the end of October.
