Fred Olsen Travel, Lymington

Fred Olsen Travel, Lymington
One of TTG’s Top 50 Travel Agencies 2020

Lymington branch was the first of Fred Olsen Travel’s cluster of six stores on the south coast, and enjoys a prime location on the quaint high street in this affluent market town.

Samantha O’Connor recently stepped up to become branch manager after previous manager Sarah was asked to open a new Fred Olsen store in nearby Hythe. Sam now runs a small but perfectly formed team of three, including Sally who has 25 years’ experience and Mike who has clocked up a remarkable 50.

Cruise is core for this store, making up 65% of sales, and the team has extraordinary product knowledge in this area. As well as online training courses, they attended ship visits with MSC Cruises, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Saga and Oceania between them last year, and also travelled on educational trips onboard Riviera Travel, Hurtigruten and Avalon Waterways ships.

Traditional, personalised touches such as handwritten welcome home cards and an annual event in a posh local venue for VIP clients continue to work wonders with this store’s older demographic. The team has even been known to arrange a pop-up shop in a local retirement home for customers who are less mobile.

Despite enjoying such a loyal client base, Lymington branch has also put a real focus on meeting and winning new clients in the last year, by ramping up its client evenings, exhibiting at local shows, and advertising in local press – in addition to holding its own very successful holiday show events. These efforts helped Lymington branch achieve the highest growth in income of any established branch in the Fred Olsen Travel group in 2019.

The team also works hard to support Oakhaven Hospice, having fundraised for the local charity over the past five years, including helping to arrange a huge water slide down the high street in Lymington! In November 2019, the team was the main sponsor of Oakhaven’s fashion show, helping to raise £4,200 for the charity. The store continues to support the hospice by donating a proportion of the profit to the charity if a customer mentions Oakhaven when they book.

fredolsentravel.co.uk