Well done staff - we're off to Barbados

A COMPANY boss surprised her 25 staff with an all-expenses-paid week-long holiday in the Caribbean as a reward for racking up record profits, it emerged today.

Workers at luxury hotel toiletries firm Pacific Direct were gobsmacked last month when Lara Morgan announced she was treating them to the stay at a resort in Barbados - and was even throwing in spending money.

In previous years, staff trips had been limited to weekends away in the UK - a far cry from this year's holiday, which reportedly cost £50,000.

Morgan promised five years ago that if the Bedford-based company's profits hit the £1m mark, she would treat the staff. But until now it had seen hard times in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, the foot and mouth outbreak, the Sars virus and the war in Iraq.

Morgan said: 'It was a pleasure to see their faces when I announced the news. I firmly believe you can get extraordinary staff loyalty and results if you treat people in extraordinary ways.'British businesses don't invest enough in original staff incentives, when there are so many benefits to reap.'

Morgan, who owns Pacific Direct with her husband Charlie, started the business from a spare bedroom in 1991. It now boasts customers in more than 100 countries worldwide, owns manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic and China and runs offices in six countries.

She has been described by one business magazine as 'the Lara Croft of business'.The team was split into two groups over a fortnight, with an overlap weekend where the annual staff awards were handed out.