School holiday company to cut 670 jobs

Specialist school travel company PGL is to cut 670 jobs – 25% of its workforce – as a result of the impact of Covid-19.

The organisation will lose staff at its Blackpool office while its operational sites, including Winmarleigh Hall, north of Garstang and close to the Forest of Bowland, will also lose hundreds of staff.

The company, which hosts children at residential activity centres across the UK, said the Covid-19 pandemic had adversely affected its business after being forced to cancel visits.

In a statement, PGL said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our business and has resulted in 34 colleagues at our Ross-on-Wye head office being made redundant.

“As we conclude a further consultation process, a further 636 colleagues have been made redundant across the PGL Group, representing a 25% reduction in our total workforce. This includes colleagues based in our Blackpool and Hertfordshire offices and in our centre operations across the UK.”

PGL Travel reported pre-tax profits of £35m and revenues of £133m in its most recently-published accounts, for a 17-month period to August 2019.