Super-consortium brings 'new era' to independents

A new super-consortium has pledged to crank up its directional selling after declaring a new era has dawned for the independent agent.

The bold statement came as the UK’s three largest agency consortiums - Advantage Travel Centres, Global Travel Group and Worldchoice – unveiled the formation of a new joint company, Triton Travel Group.

The new venture will see the groups negotiate joint commercial deals and pool resources, such as technology, best practices and marketing, to create "the largest retailer in the UK." It will have almost 2000 agency members and be "multi-channel."

Advantage managing director John McEwan, unveiling the new company at an ABTA business lunch, stressed Triton will not be a consumer brand and insisted all three consortiums will retain their brand identity.

"It is the dawn of a new era for consortia," he said.

Key to the strategy will be a concerted drive to instil sales discipline among members – which traditionally they have failed to achieve.

While Global has enjoyed a degree of success in dictating a sales policy, Advantage and Worldchoice have always struggled.

But McEwan insisted that will change.

"In the past, there has been little communication with members about why they should sell our preferred suppliers," he told TravelMole. "There has been no differentiation about why they should sell one operator over another. But now there will be.

"We will be introducing a selling tool that will enable members to clearly see the benefits of selling our preferred suppliers."

The technology will give agents details of targets and performance levels – something previously lacking - in addition to offering exclusive deals and incentives.

The search, said McEwan, will also "present information the way we want agents to see it."

"Preferred suppliers will be displayed first," he said.

"One of the complaints in the past has been that there has been little discipline. But if we want the consortium to thrive it must be aligned," added McEwan. "We need to make sure our members have the tools and the best technology to access the right product."

Although the number of preferred suppliers is likely to be reduced, he stressed agents will still offer a broad range of product.

"I can’t pretend it will happen overnight but we believe members will quickly see the obvious advantages of a conherent sales policy," added McEwan.

The group may also look to share online content - each has its own dynamic packaging functionality - while a joint conference is also likely to be held.

Worldchoice chairman Colin Heal said: "We expect this nedw development to being significant benefits to the members. We will have the most significant purchasing power of any travel retail group in the UK."

Global chairman George Begg described the alliance as "well overdue."

"We all have the same threats and opportunities and we are all trying to achieve the same things," he said. "We will now be able to offer much more to our new partners. Those that choose to work with us will do very well from this initiative."

Report by Steve Jones

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

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congratulations

Well done to the 3 heads of the groups to bring some joint strategy to an industry that is littered with small owner managers that can all do it better than the big boys. The big 4 still need the support of the independents on the high street and what a fantastic opportunity this presents for them. When are the knockers going to realise that everyone wants a great holiday. Numbers of visits abroad each year are increasing dramatically, so now should be considered a boom time and an opportunity to earn a better living in an industry that is hard enough to make a profit in. These 3 guys are going to deliver this. Let the knockers have their say, they can always step outside and take everyone on single handed.....would they make any more money and how long would they last? Lets hope we now see more professionalism, better service and higher quality holidays on the high street, giving increased profits for the industry and allowing better training to take place. This can only be good for the future.

By ian cook, Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Good idea, but find another brand!

Consolidation always leads to economies of scale and given the level of competition in the industry, can only be a good thing for the companies. Triton, though, is far from a strong travel name and a more appealing one should be found to re-brand the fascias of hundreds of shops across the UK.

By Constantinos Doucas, Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Cut out Supplier Competitors

This is the moment that we have been waiting for. Insist on only doing commercial deals with operators who do not undercut us and concentrate on only those who want to work with us and not against us. Probably the niche market operators rather than the so called Big Four.

By Steve Pattenden, Wednesday, September 28, 2005
A new Era?

Sounds like panic to me. Worldchoice and the other 2 consortia have failed to recognise the reality of what is really happening in the trade, namely, 50% of their members are on the point of going out of business and their businesses have not been viable for some time. Instead of recognising the fact that this is happening and culling the weak members they have now trebled the number of non-viable agents. What tour operator is going to want to service 2,000 agents when there are probably no more than 300 who deserve to be in business. By creating the super-consortium they have hastened the day when operators will choose to select the agents they wish to do business with. On a separate issue I wonder how much staff savings there will be in each consortium. Little I guess is the answer as the top bananas are only iterested in building their empires.

By Bryan Somer, Wednesday, September 28, 2005