From the minute we opened our first small retail shop in Seaham, Co Durham, in 1980, I was hooked. I fell in love with the travel industry.

We've come a long way since our small beginnings, today we are the UK's largest independently-owned travel agency and, while we hear of only doom and gloom in the industry news these days, we're still growing all the time. Our turnover last year was a record £300 million. We've broken our own record year on year as we've invested to maintain our enviable position as a frontrunner within the industry.

Here at Hays Travel we are fully ABTA bonded and our business operates on five main levels:

• Retail Shops
• Homeworking
• Call Centres
• Independence Group (for independent retailers who want to benefit from our back office expertise and buying power)
• Forex4agents (a foreign exchange service for independant travel agents).

Over a quarter of a century on, the organisation now employs over 750 people. Ask these people, or the clients and companies who deal with us, and you'll find they usually use the same words to describe us at Hays Travel: professional and friendly.

We're also a company that cares. We have been awarded Investor in People accreditation and were recently selected as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies in the UK to work for. We have always engaged with local communities and staff get involved in charity and fundraising events on a regular basis. I like to think we're a company with heart and a company that rewards hard work.

We're always expanding our homeworking division and we're looking for people who, like us, are passionate about the industry. People who can carry our ethos - professional and friendly. People who want to share in the success of a company which continues to go from strength to strength.

Statistics show that people are increasingly shunning the high street multiples in favour of the independents and homeworkers in particular, who have the time and commitment to find them their ideal holiday. I believe this shift is ultimately because of the great deals which companies like ourselves can offer, and because of the way we do business.

I'm very proud of my team here at Hays Travel and what we have achieved together. I hope that as you read these pages you'll catch some of our spirit, some of our ethos and some of the success we're enjoying.