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Search forBrilliant Weekends are over in Bristol
Wednesday, September 03, 2008, 08:00
Brilliant Weekends Limited, based in Hotwell Road, ceased trading on Monday. The company's 23 staff have been made redundant.
Owner and managing director Richard Dennys blamed the economic downturn and the falling value of the pound against the euro.
Mr Dennys said the company owed between £300,000 and £500,000, but could not confirm how many creditors there are or name them.
He said there were currently no customers away on breaks, but about 150 future bookings would be affected by the closure.
Mr Dennys said he was doing everything within his power to get other companies to take on the bookings and see them through.
There is currently no external insolvency company dealing with the collapse of Brilliant Weekends.
Mr Dennys has asked for patience at what he says is a difficult time for everyone involved. He said: "We are desperately sorry for the distress and inconvenience that this will cause. I want to apologise sincerely to customers and staff and assure them that we are doing our best to resolve the situation.
"Customers that booked to travel and who paid by credit card are advised to immediately contact their credit card company for a refund. Customers who booked a flight-inclusive package covered by our ATOL licence should contact the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for advice and refunds.
"If you have booked the flights directly with the airline and not as part of a complete package then you will not be covered by the CAA/ATOL protection scheme and should refer to your credit card company. We are trying to update the website every day and customers can visit the site to monitor the situation."
The travel company, which started trading six years ago, hit trouble as the value of sterling started to slide against the euro. Holidays booked when a pound bought 1.45 euros had to be paid for by the company as the exchange rate slid towards 1.25 euros to the pound.
This meant the cost of a 1,000 euro holiday rose through the year from £689 to £800. Yesterday the pound stood at 1.23 euros.
Mr Dennys said: "That alone would have cost us tens of thousands of pounds.
There has also been a huge drop-off in demand over the last few months because of the current financial climate.
"Then when the credit card company asked us for a big security deposit to keep financing the bookings we realised that we just couldn't do it anymore.
"Even six months ago everything was going well... Once people started talking about the credit crunch and economic downturn it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"One of the first things to go when people are cutting back is discretionary spending like weekends away."
The business started when Mr Dennys and his wife Liz were living in Umbria, Italy, in 2002.
They started selling summer stag and hen weekend breaks in Rimini to groups arriving with no frills airlines.
Six months later they returned to Bristol and, after working out of a rented room for a while, they set up offices in Hotwells Road.
The business rapidly expanded into corporate weekends as well as stag and hen breaks.
Mr Dennys said: "Liz and I are just distraught. Customers loved what we were doing, and we had a great team of staff. We really enjoyed it and now we have nothing left.
"Nobody wants to go bust. Staff have been left without jobs and my wife and I invested everything in this business.
"We literally have nothing left and no savings to fall back on. We feel terrible."
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