CWT Digital parent closes down brand as tech support switches to India

CWT Digital parent closes down brand as tech support switches to India

Brighton-based travel technology firm CWT Digital has closed down with all developer services moving to the Indian base of parent Zen3 Group. Six members of staff have been retained in Brighton to continue providing account management and sales and marketing … Continue reading

Brighton-based travel technology firm CWT Digital has closed down with all developer services moving to the Indian base of parent Zen3 Group.

Six members of staff have been retained in Brighton to continue providing account management and sales and marketing for Zen3 in the UK.

The office will be headed up by chief technology officer James Lever. Managing director Dan Caplin has left the business to join Brighton-based web usability agency Clearleft.

CWT Digital’s smaller clients including JTA Travel Group and Luggage Mule were given six weeks’ notice of the termination of their contracts.

They have been given the source code for their sites as they seek to find new partners to support their technology.

A new development team established by Melt Content has agreed to deal to support Luggage Mule, the specialist luggage courier service.

Larger customers, including easyJet Holidays, Oneworld, cruise.co.uk and Amadeus Cruise Shop, are being migrated to Zen3 and will be supported by Zen3 developers in Hyderabad.

At its peak CWT Digital employed around 30 people in Brighton but that has dwindled and only around five redundancies were made as a result of the move.

Steve Endacott, who founded the business in 2001, sold a majority stake in CWT Digital to Zen3 in September 2015 becoming non-executive chairman of the Indian firm.

He said: “The costs of development teams in India and eastern Europe means it just does not make sense to base them in the UK any more so the decision was taken we did not need a large office in the UK.

“The UK travel market over the last year has not had the money to invest in the future. It’s just the big companies doing that now, so that’s what we will focus on.”

Previously known as Click With Technology, the firm remains listed on Companies House but Endacott said the process of officially closing it down was continuing.

Caplin said: “Following almost 10 years with the business it was time for me to move on, and I am excited to be joining one of the UK’s leading strategic design consultancies.

“I have worked with Clearleft in the past and have always admired what they do. As well as their work in UX and design, they organise some of the industry’s leading conferences; UX London and Leading Design.

“Whilst our experience is multi-sector, there is also a lot of opportunity for us to work with leading travel brands to support them in solving any thorny digital challenges that they may currently be experiencing.”