Apartments Abroad Goes into Liquidation

A Stoke-based travel company has gone into liquidation despite last-minute efforts to sell the business.

Apartments Abroad, which traded as apartmentsabroad.com, was established in 1991 and based in Blythe Bridge. It was primarily a wholesale supplier of holiday accommodation to the travel trade.

Steve Currie, a director at the Stoke office of business rescue, recovery and restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor confirmed that attempts to establish a rescue package for the company had failed and it had ceased trading.

Apartments Abroad managing director Ian Thirlwall said: “Despite the strenuous efforts of the company and its advisers it has unfortunately not been possible to continue trading. It is deeply upsetting as we had come exceptionally close to selling the business as a going concern before Christmas.

“When that fell at the last hurdle a subsequent promise of support for our cashflow then also failed to materialise. Despite that blow we and our advisers continued to explore avenues to save Apartments Abroad and right up until today were negotiating a possible sale. Sadly this could not be achieved and with great regret we ceased trading.

“As Apartments Abroad was almost exclusively a trade wholesaler and because we were committed to pre-paying suppliers prior to departure we expect the impact upon consumers to be minimal.

“I would like to express my gratitude to all those in the trade, at home and overseas, who have supported Apartments Abroad for the best part of two decades. Their support, which I trust they felt we reciprocated, was always much appreciated.”