Advantage Managed Services member Polka Dot Travel will welcome customers in Welshpool, Powys from November 1, taking its total number of stores to four after launching in October 2013.

The new shop follows hot on the heels of the opening earlier this year of the company’s Wrexham branch and came about after a member of the public contacted the agency asking them to open in their town.

“We had a chance phone call from somebody in the town who was asking us if we were going to be opening a travel agent there because she thought there was a perfect shop,” director Helen Johnson told TTG.

“It wasn’t somebody who we’d actually met personally but it was a friend of a customer, so she knew about us.

“Curiosity gets the better of you – we went and had a look at this shop and it’s perfect.”

The new shop will become the only travel agency in town when it opens in November. “We’ll be the first travel agent in that town for quite some years and it’s a lovely little market town with quite a buzz about it,” Johnson said.

She added that the business as a whole had enjoyed a good year so far. “We’re happy with the way all the shops have gone over the summer. It’s helped us having a really poor summer here – the word on the street is everybody has been busier because of the weather.”

To cope with the expansion, Polka Dot Travel has brought in the co-founder of the Just Go agency grouping, Mark Johnson. “He’s coming onboard with us to work from a commercial point of view behind the scenes,” she added.