It's Not Just Loyal Clients That Stick With Alfa Travel

Aug. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- 2012 has been a year of celebrations for the nation and here at Alfa we are celebrating the long term service of two key members of the Alfa family: Neil McMurdy and Donna Boothman.

In 1991 Neil took the decision to leave behind the security of a successful job with tour operator Shearings as Head of Purchasing to help lay the foundations of Alfa Travel with Paul Sawbridge, the previous Managing Director of Shearings, who set up Alfa Travel in 1990.

As Tours Manager, Neil was responsible for all aspects of the tour programme from writing the itineraries to collecting passengers and getting them to the interchange at Sandbach. He has even been known to travel through the night to reunite clients with their luggage!

Neil’s role has grown with the company from those early days as Tours Manager with a team of 2 operating a single tour programme from the North West to his current position of Head of Operations where he manages a team of over 70 including drivers, traffic administration and IT.

Neil says “Looking back I suppose it was a large leap of faith but having worked with Paul at Shearings for many, many years I knew we had a sound plan and I’m very proud of what we have achieved over the last 21 years including building up a fleet of 45 modern executive coaches from scratch ”.

In fact it was Neil who interviewed a very young Donna the following year for the position of office junior. Neil says “Paul and I interviewed a number of candidates to join our small team but it was Donna who stood out as the one with the most potential”.

As the company has grown so have Donna’s responsibilities; from her original role as office junior dealing with reservations to her current position of Sales Manager where she is responsible for a team of 23. She has seen the number of passengers carried rise from 3,000 in that first year to over 100,000.

Along with Paul, both have seen Alfa Travel grow from its humble beginnings in a flat above a travel agent in Bamber Bridge with a total of 6 staff to larger premises in Leyland and then into the purpose built head office in Euxton where it currently houses over almost 50 staff and continues to grow.

Donna says “I can’t believe how far we have come from the tiny office in Bamber Bridge! I almost didn’t take the job as I couldn’t get myself to the offices but then my granddad stepped in and offered to drive me each day for a pound, so really if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have enjoyed the last 20 years seeing Alfa grow to the successful coach tour operator that it is today and know that I had a hand in it, I have learnt so much, each day is different and I love that I am still as excited booking a holiday for someone now as I was back then!”