1000 Mile heads north

HOME-BASED corporate specialist 1000 Mile Travel Group has moved further into Queensland, appointing two new members on the Sunshine Coast as part of a national expansion.

The Melbourne-headquartered group now has 28 staff in other locations including Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with plans to move into Western Australia in coming months.

“We are planning to have our Perth operations started by the end of the year with around four staff initially,” said 1000 Mile Group director of partnerships Alex Stewart.

“We see Perth as a key market - our plans will be to grow Perth to 10 staff in 2018,” he said.

Stewart said the group had boosted its staff by 30% this year and had hired a NSW manager, Kirsten Karbowiack, to support its expansion in the state.

“Our growth has been great and we are surpassing most of our major supplier targets,” Stewart said, adding that bringing a corporate focus to the home- based approach was “clearly delivering benefits to our people and our customers.”

“We are more than a leisure agent with a corporate sub-brand, we are a fully fledged corporate TMC,” he said.

1000 Mile has previously stated its goal of enlisting up to 70 consultants within the next five years, in all states.

The company was established almost three years ago by directors Nicola Veltman, Ben Ross and Stewart, all former members of the Flight Centre Corporate Traveller team.

About 80% of the company’s business is corporate travel, drawing on its membership of Helloworld Business Travel.