Brexit and the Covid pandemic have been blamed after a ski company was forced to shut down after two decades of trading.
Powder White, which was founded in 2003 and is based in London, is now scrambling to contact customers who have holidays booked with the company as these will no longer go ahead as planned.
The company said that “despite our very best efforts”, it has “regrettably been unable to navigate the extraordinary challenges our industry has faced over recent years.”
The website for Powder Ski has been taken down and replaced by a short statement.
Citing the “immeasurable combined impact” of the UK leaving the European Union and the effects of Covid, the company said that difficulties have “more recently been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis”.
This has “resulted in us not being able to fulfil our obligations and most importantly, our valued guests’ ski holidays,” the company added.
Staff are “urgently” contacting customers with upcoming ski holidays in order to “lay out the options available to them”, with hopes that everyone will be reached “within the next three days”.
The Independent has asked Powder White to confirm how many customers are affected.
“We would like to thank all our customers and suppliers who have showed us such loyalty over the last 20 years. Our thanks too go to our incredible team of staff who have supported us throughout. We are so hugely sorry for everyone affected by our failure.”
According to Ski Line travel agency, Powder White is the first ski business to go bust in 2024, and it has already helped customers re-book trips.
The news comes days after it was announced that Inghams, one of the UK’s oldest ski travel operators, has been put up for sale.
Inghams is owned by Swiss company Hotelplan, which itself is owned by supermarket chain Migros.