Swords Travel vows to keep ‘personal touch’ amid global expansion plans

Wimbledon-based luxury agency Swords Travel has vowed to retain its “personal touch” as it begins to plot global expansion.

 

The agency, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, is hoping to grow its UK team with the addition of five affiliates before expanding globally, with plans to establish bases in the US and Australia over the coming years.

 

Speaking to Aspire, co-founder Mark Swords said: “Over the last year or so, we’ve just been trying to stabilise and structure the business so we’re in a position to be able to recruit more people. One thing we said was, if we do recruit again, we just want to make sure it’s the right kind of affiliates we’re taking on.”

 

He said one of the company’s “key selling points” is its small size, with the team currently numbering 22, so making sure the new additions are “a good fit” is a priority.

 

“We just don’t want it [the business] to become too big in the UK, so we can keep that personal touch,” he said.

 

Once the agency has recruited the five additional affiliates and enhanced its “really solid foundation”, it will focus on taking the business global.

 

Swords explained: “Our plans are to replicate our model within Australia and the US so that we have a team of 20 to 25 people [in each destination].

 

“20 of them would be salespeople, then the rest will generally be support people. Our goal is to ideally have 60 salespeople globally.”

 

He said this expansion will enable Swords Travel to “operate in all markets”, as well as have a 24-hour point of contact worldwide.

 

Retaining the agency’s established small-scale business model abroad will be vital, Swords said.

 

“There is definitely an opportunity for a small, independent model that really hones in on service and quality,” he said. “What we’ve done here has been great, and I’m hoping in another 10 years we’ll have that same expansion but over those two new continents.”

 

He hopes the agency’s small size will continue to allow its agents and affiliates “more flexibility” than bigger groups, where advisors can sometimes be “restricted on what they can and can’t do”.

 

“We can be that bit more flexible because you’re speaking with the owners,” he said.

 

Swords emphasised that, when the time comes to grow internationally, he and co-founder Stuart Swords will “always be at the forefront of the business”.

 

“[Speaking to clients] is my love of the job. That’s what I enjoy,” he said. “We want to grow the company, but we also just very much want to stay at the forefront with the team, to support them.”

 

The global expansion plans will also create new opportunities for the company’s existing team, with the chance for agents to support Mark and Stuart with “the build and the growth” and to go overseas to take on a secondment.

 

Co-founders Mark and Stuart will visit Australia for three months at the end of this year for “the first part of the set-up”.