FIRST Choice Holidays is hoping to drive 75% of all sales through its own distribution channels.
Announcing interim results for the six months ending April 30 on Tuesday, group chief executive Peter Long said 66% of all First Choice sales are sold through in-house channels, a year-on-year growth of 6%, with Internet sales accounting for nearly half of this at 31%.
The company is targeting further growth, although Long admitted it would not be immediate and did not give a time-scale for reaching in-house sales of 75%, which will leave a quarter of the company’s sales driven through third-party agents.
Long said: “We have to put a little bit more emphasis behind our own brand as it is not going to happen overnight. However, we have some important long-term strategic partners and we wish to maintain those relationships.”
He added the growth would be fuelled by opening between 50 and 100 new high-street agencies, including franchises, across the country in major towns where First Choice has gaps in its portfolio.
An additional £1.5 million marketing spend in the first half year is also driving sales in-house and particularly online, although Long added the web would never dominate First Choice’s distribution needs and shops would not become web support centres like rival Thomson.
Meanwhile, Long admitted capacity in the mainstream holidays sector has been reduced by 5% overall for the summer and by 12% for its specialist holidays division. There is only 3% of June’s stock in the mainstream sector left to be sold.
Winter capacity was reduced by 8%, largely because of the outbreak of bird flu in Turkey, although long-haul passenger volumes rose 41%, allowing the sector to account for 19% of all winter business – a growth of 8% on the previous year.
Meanwhile, north-west based agency Just Go has revealed its sales are significantly up since it became a First Choice franchise last week.
The agency said it expects 60% of its bookings to be for the operator.