p18 Columnist jun26 23/6/09 17:41 Page 18
news comment
ttglive.com
Jill Gardner Hays Travel
“It’s been great to be able
to save some businesses
and, more importantly,
to save so many jobs”
T
he last couple of months have been It’s horrible to see so many businesses in the
something of a rollercoaster for us industry currently in distress. We’re lucky that
here in Sunderland – no doubt here at Hays our balance sheet remains strong
reflecting the industry as a whole. and we are in a position to actively look for
In April we saw the unexpected collapse acquisitions. It’s been great to be able to save
of Freedom Direct, which has brought us some businesses and work with others that
endless opportunities and challenges have fallen into trouble and, more importantly,
since we took on the company’s database, to save so many jobs. We remain confident
bookings, web addresses and intellectual there is a place for independent agents, despite
property rights. current troubling times.
Less than two months on, Harvey World Also, we are seeing a change in booking
Travel has gone into administration – patterns. A lot of people have held off buying
another significant independent player their summer holiday until the last minute.
that has not survived the storm. Vaca- The model has changed. At Hays, we’ve been
tion World’s purchase of 25 of their trading better than the market and are
shops in a pre-pack administration and entering into the summer months with
request to join our Independence optimism that this year won’t be the
Group posed us with a lot of questions wash-out we predicted in January.
internally because of the controversial Hopefully, other businesses are
nature of such arrangements. seeing a similar trend and have
The association with Hays now gives had the business acumen to
operators the comfort of dealing with a build up their reserves to
successfully established business with weather this storm.
strong commercial and financial relation- Independent travel agents
ships. In addition, saving the jobs of the will always be able to offer
staff in the branches is a huge upside giving their customers the choice and
them the opportunity to continue to trade. service that generates loyalty. As times are
I’ve reflected in my column before about hard, that all-important getaway is more pre-
these tough times. Now we are experiencing cious than ever, so people are taking more care
this first-hand with these recent failures. to get it right. Where we independent agents
Surviving as an independent agent today is can thrive is by finding our clients exactly what
increasingly challenging. I see issues such as they want and send them on their ideal holiday,
bonding, commercial terms with operators so they come back to us and we can build up a
and the securing of merchant facilities relationship of trust in a time of uncertainty.
becoming a barrier to new set-ups as well as
to the survival of existing agents. Jill Gardner is commercial director at Hays Travel
18 26.06.2009
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