Scottish headquartered Sainsbury’s Bank more than doubled its workforce yesterday as it made a major move into the UK travel money market.
A total of around 500 Travelex employees working under contract in Sainsbury’s Bank’s in-store currency exchange bureuax have now been taken on full-time by the bank under the terms of a TUPE transfer.
The move more than doubles the bank’s current 400 strong workforce at a stroke and makes Sainsbury’s Bank a major challenger in the highly competitive currency exchange market.
Sainsbury’s Bank saw 23% growth in sales of travel cash in 2013 and has dispensed more than £1 billion in foreign currency to more than five million customers since first entering the market in 2007.
Bank chief executive Peter Griffiths said the UK travel market – which is expected to grow to more than 100 million foreign trips a year by 2017 – presented a major opportunity for growth for his firm.
“Travel Money is a key part of our growth strategy,” Mr Griffiths said.
“Our new contract with Travelex will enable us to further enhance our offer for the Sainsbury’s customer and we’re delighted to be welcoming our 500 new bureaux colleagues to the bank.”
The bank yesterday opened its 150th in-store bureau at a store in Essex and has plans to add a further 28 during the course of this year.
It is also looking at new distribution channels for its travel money business and will begin a trial in London later this month in which customers will be able to access foreign currency from regular hole-in-the-wall cash machines.
Under the terms of a new five-year agreement, Travelex will continue to supply the bank with more than 50 separate currencies and will continue to services online and hone delivery service orders.
Steve O’Donovan, partner and business development director for Travelex, said he was pleased his company was continuing oits long-term reationship with the bank.
“Over the past seven years we have worked closely with Sainsbury’s Bank to provide competitive foreign exchange solutions to meet their customer needs,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“I’m delighted that we are renewing this partnership and will continue to provide our expertise and innovation to help drive growth for the bank.”
Sainsbury’s Bank said Euros and dollars remained the most popular currencies but it said it had seen a significant upturn in requests for a range of other currencies including a 49% uplift in Mexican Peso and 55% rise in Croatian Kuna requests this year.