JLT Group Spotlight: How Lee Butler Built Aberdeen’s Newest Travel Success Story
Just outside Aberdeen’s main shopping thoroughfare of Union Street, in the buzzing independent quarter of Rosemount, sits a travel agency unlike any other in the city. There’s no counter to queue at, no glass screen to peer over. Instead, customers sink into sofas, perch at a bar, and chat as though they’ve popped round to a friend’s living room. This is Butler’s Travel, operating under the JLT Group network, and its founder, Lee Butler, has a story as remarkable as the business he’s built.
Founded by Janine Marshall, The JLT Group has grown into one of the UK’s fastest-expanding travel consortiums, now supporting over 450 home and retail-based agents nationwide. Fully protected under IATA, ATOL and PTS, the group has built its reputation on flexible commission structures, in-depth training and a genuinely supportive community, giving agents like Lee the freedom to build a business on their own terms while trading with the backing and credibility of an established network.
A Lifelong Love of Travel
Lee, 36, was born and raised in Aberdeen and has never wanted to be anywhere else. His passion for travel started early; at school, where he was named Scotland’s top student in Travel and Tourism. Life took him elsewhere first, though: into the police force, and later into car sales, where he thrived on his natural ability to connect with people.
“I’ve always loved travel, helping people plan the trips they’ll remember forever,” Lee reflects.
From Taxi Driver to Travel Entrepreneur
During the pandemic, a voluntary redundancy gave Lee the push he needed. He began driving taxis for a friend’s firm and discovered a genuine love of meeting new people and being his own boss. Friends who’d travelled the world with Lee, and benefited from his knack for planning the perfect trip, kept telling him the same thing: you should be doing this for a living.
In October 2024, after coming across JLT Group through a social media video, Lee did his own research into founder Janine Marshall, drawn to her personal story and the journey that had brought her to build the company. “It was her story of where she came from, what she had done previously, that made me think this could be a company that I’m interested in working with,” Lee says. The commission was competitive too. The flexibility on offer sealed it. “There was a lot more freedom with them than others, which appealed to me,” he adds, a natural fit for someone who’d just discovered the freedom of being his own boss driving taxis.
He signed up as a home-based travel consultant and completed his training in December 2024 and the rest, as he puts it, “is history.” It’s the people, though, that have kept him there day to day. Of the core JLT team – Steph on admin, Kate on accounts, and Hannah, who supports him closely on the cruise side, Lee is quick to sing their praises. Today, Butler’s Travel operates as part of the JLT Group family, one of over 450 home and retail-based agents across the network.
A Bold Leap: Opening Butler’s Travel
After building a loyal following as a home worker, Lee took the leap that few in the travel industry dare to make: opening his own bricks-and-mortar store. Butler’s Travel opened its doors in Aberdeen on 3 July, and the response was, in Lee’s words, “overwhelming”, in the best possible sense.
The numbers speak for themselves. In its very first month of trading, Butler’s Travel took 116 bookings worth £442,000 in sales. Average transaction values have nearly doubled compared with Lee’s home-working days, a testament to the trust a physical, welcoming space builds with customers considering the big-ticket holidays: luxury cruises, escorted tours, and once-in-a-lifetime trips that people simply won’t commit to online.
“People want to see something above the door and look you in the eye,” says Lee. “If they’re spending twenty grand on a holiday, they want to know exactly who they’re trusting with it.”
Built on Community and Personality
Lee’s secret weapon has been authenticity. With a growing social media following: now over 5,800 on Facebook and monthly views regularly topping half a million, Lee has built Butler’s Travel around his own story, sharing it openly through weekly Facebook Lives and posts tailored specifically to his Aberdeen audience.
“I want people to feel like they know me personally,” he explains. And it works: customers regularly walk through the door saying they’ve been following him for months before finally coming in.
Central to it all is Lee’s fierce love for his home city. Tucked into Rosemount, just outside Aberdeen’s main Business Improvement District, Butler’s Travel sits among independent bridal shops, barbers and cafés rather than the big chains of Union Street, and Lee wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s a big city, but it’s still very much a village,” he says. “If you’re a local business here, people back you and support you.”
That community spirit runs through everything he does. Having watched Aberdeen’s high street lose major anchor stores in recent years, Lee is on a mission to prove local businesses can carry the city forward. “Forget the big anchor stores, forget the big companies, they’re not coming back,” he says. “We need to start supporting local again: your local travel agent, your local butcher, your local baker.” He’s equally passionate about championing Aberdeen Airport, determined to put local departures back on the map after years overshadowed by the oil and gas downturn, a cause he says is now catching on across the city’s other travel businesses too.
Working alongside him every day is his partner, Callum, who left his own career to join Lee full-time in the business, the two of them a warm, welcoming double-act behind the venture. And fittingly, the Butler name above the door honours the family who raised him, a lasting legacy close to Lee’s heart.
What’s Next
Far from slowing down, Lee already has his sights set on growth, carefully and sustainably. Plans are underway to bring on experienced travel consultants this autumn, alongside converting the store’s lower floor into an immersive, speakeasy-style events space for supplier evenings and customer experiences. Looking further ahead, Lee has a five-year plan to open a second store within the next two years, and potentially a third within five, always staying rooted in the north-east of Scotland, and always keeping the personal, local touch that has made Butler’s Travel such an early success.
“I don’t want the overheads of growing too big,” Lee says. “That value for customers, that’s what matters to me most.”
From a lifelong love of travel to a thriving business built on genuine community spirit, Lee Butler’s story is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when passion and hard work come together, and a strong endorsement of what JLT Group’s model can help agents achieve. Aberdeen, it seems, has found its new favourite travel agent.