12 June 2008

Cosmos becomes trade-only brand as Monarch direct portal is created

Cosmos is to become a dedicated trade brand and will no longer be marketed direct to the consumer.

Sister companies Avro Flights and somewhere2stay are also becoming purely trade brands as part of a brand review.

Coach tour brand Cosmos Tourama also remains a trade brand offering.

The groupÃ¢â¬â¢s holidays, hotels and flights will become available as a direct proposition via a new Monarch portal as Monarch Holidays, Monarch Hotels and Monarch Flights.

Stuart Jackson, product and commercial director for Cosmos and managing director of accommodation-only brand somewhere2stay said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe believe this makes us the first operator to have a dedicated trade brand.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœFurther to a lot of consultation with our retail partners it was felt that the Cosmos brand should be retained so that agents could have the opportunity to dominate a fully bonded brand which for nearly 50 years has been highly respected and which would in effect allow them to Ã¢â¬ËœownÃ¢â¬â¢ the Cosmos customer going forward.Ã¢â¬~

He added: Ã¢â¬ÅâœThis gives us the opportunity to maximise our strategic alliance with the trade by focusing Cosmos as a dedicated trade brand and as such it will never compete with the retailer with the same brand based on price.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœSimilarly, we want to give greater endorsement through the trade to our component brands of somewhere2stay and Avro and as such we will be focusing heavily on their growth during the coming months.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe will continue to develop our ability to deliver the product via XML feeds, third party technology systems, agent partnersÃ¢â¬â¢ own DP systems and viewdata. Our dedicated sales teams remain in place and fully committed to providing agents with our full support.Ã¢â¬~

by Phil Davies

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Your Comments (6)

Missing the Point

The press release is not so much about Cosmos and Avro going "exclusively" through the trade "hurrah hurrah", but a bit like a well known ex chancellor's budgets - the important bit being not in the headline but further down - and that shows the message that "we are expanding our direct sell operations using the respected MONARCH brand name, that agents helped to build up over the years, and it will now be direct-sell. Nothing wrong with the Cosmos/Monarch group doing that, but let's not big it up as a great day for agents.

By Nick Cooper, Monday, June 16, 2008
WWW.Bedbank.com

I am sorry to disappoint you too Cosmos, WWW.Bedbank.com are proud to have been purely trade only since launching in 2001. Our strong relationship with top independent retailers and homeworking companies alike, has ensured that we have remained loyal to our agents, who enjoy our competitive pricing structure, backed up by a team of experienced staff and an excellent customer service record. We remain in full support of the UK travel trade.

By Amanda Taylor, Friday, June 13, 2008
Not the first trade-only operator...

It is great see a strong travel brand focusing their efforts on the channel that clearly delivers the best results for them, but the first trade-only operator? Sorry Cosmos, but there might be someone who got there first. Speaking from Travel 2 Travel 4's point of view, we have been a trade-only brand for over 25 years, and for all that time we have remained 100% dedicated to the UK trade.

By Alasdair Farrimond, Thursday, June 12, 2008
TRUST and TIME

Hope we can trust ???? We will see but I do not trust any operator any more...

By ALPASLAN SAG, Thursday, June 12, 2008
What about stock availability?

I agree with Nick - I have always respected Cosmos, but I'm afraid this is, sadly, spin and rhetoric and I suspect he is absolutely right with his pricing prediction. There is also an issue, however, with the availability of stock. Time and time again we find accommodation showing available on the somewhere2stay website which suddenly disappears when you log-in as an agent. We once queried this with Cosmos and were told - quite emphatically by someone in reservations - that a lot of stock is not made available to the trade and is only available "online" (by that we assume she meant "direct" seeing as we were also logged-in "online"). I assume that this stock will now only be available through the Monarch Hotels site and not Somewhere2stay - which conveniently means that it will be much easier for them to justify withholding stock. Cosmos a "Dedicated" trade brand? If you define dedicated as "exclusive" then, perhaps yes. If you define dedicated as "wholly committed to" then I'm afraid not ...

By Matt Stansfield, Thursday, June 12, 2008
Am I missing something?

Is this just a different way of announcing that the Monarch name and brand will now be direct sell ? If AVRO and "New Monarch" are selling seats on the same flights will Monarch's prices be lower than AVRO's, will Monarch Holidays prices be lower than Cosmos ? will Monarch Hotels prices be lower than Somewhere2stay ? I think we may suspect the answers to this one. The Cosmos/Monarch group is a decent company, but I'm not so sure that agents will be jumping for joy at the positive spin on this announcement for them. I do agree that it looks like a sensible and logical move for the Cosmos / Monarch group to make.

By Nick Cooper, Thursday, June 12, 2008