ABTA has terminated the membership of Tunbridge Wells-based miniple Baldwins Travel.
Baldwins owns 11 stores, including Westerham Travel in Kent, which it acquired in May 2024
At the time of the Westerham Travel acquisition, Director Nick Marks said the firm was discussing the purchase of ‘two to three’ more stores.
And in June last year, it launched a homeworking group, The Travel Specialist, for new and experienced agents.
ABTA confirmed in a statement today that it had terminated Baldwins’ membership due to a lack of financial information.
An ABTA spokesperson said: “ABTA’s Members’ Committee, which comprises ABTA members operating in an independent capacity, has decided to terminate the membership of Baldwins Travel Agency Limited with immediate effect after it failed to provide the financial information required of them as an ABTA member.”
Baldwins’ parent company Inc & Co is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Barclays Bank, which claims the private equity firm took out £13.7 million of unauthorised loans.
Inc & Co acquired Baldwins, founded as a family business in 1895, via its subsidiary Inc Travel Group as the travel industry was emerging from the pandemic in September 2021.
Shortly after the acquisition, in November 2021, freezing orders were issued against Inc & Co by Barclays Bank to prevent it from selling or moving any assets.
But last October, one of Baldwins former directors and former Inc & Co CEO Jack Mason, and two of his business associates, Dave Antrobus and Scott Dylan, were handed 22-month jail sentences for contempt of court after they were found to have transfered assets – including Baldwins Travel – to a holding company in the British Virgin Islands in breach of the freezing order.
Barclays’ case against the three for the alleged £13.7m of unauthorised borrowing has yet to be heard.
Mason had already resigned from Baldwins prior to his contempt of court trial at the High Court last October. Fellow Inc & Co shareholder Christopher Hatfield, who was also a director of Baldwins, resigned in November 2024, after the convictions of Mason, Antrobus and Dylan.
After the trial, Baldwins insisted it would not be affected by their convictions, saying that the three had not been involved in the business since December 2023.
Baldwins remains a member of Advantage Travel Partnership, which today issued the following statement: “We have been informed of the situation with Baldwins Travel and ABTA. As it stands right now, Baldwins remains an Advantage member.”
