THOMSON Breakaway is facing further changes after managing director Steve Garley announced he is to quit the company.
His departure at the end of the month comes as Thomson abandoned plans to relocate Breakaway just two months after staff were told they were moving to Kingston.
Instead, Breakaway will remain in Richmond and will form part of Thomson’s development division headed by John Wells. The 25-strong development team will move from Greater London House and join Breakaway in Richmond.
Garley’s departure means Crystal Cities and Short Breaks and direct-sell operation Tropical Places – which were headed by Garley – will revert back to Crystal managing director Andy Perrin.
Aspokesman denied Garley’s decision to leave follows a rift with Crystal and Breakaway chairman Ian Smith.
Sources say the two have not seen eye to eye since Smith took up his position in the spring.
“They have a good working relationship,” the spokesman insisted. “Steve’s departure has nothing to do with personalities. He has personal business goals which he wants to develop.”
It is thought unlikely that Thomson will appoint a replacement for Garley. Instead, new sales and marketing director Jeremy Ellis and product director Jane Colledge will run the day-to-day operations and report to Steve Newman, the development division’s finance director.
Newman will be responsible for developing distribution opportunities for Breakaway. Thomson believes cities and short breaks are ideal products for experimenting with the Internet and digital distribution. The market leader has already outlined its desire to exploit technology.
“It is quite a sophisticated market and attracts people who are technically literate,” a spokesman said. “We see opportunities to develop distribution possibilities which, depending on the progress, could be replicated elsewhere.”
He stressed that agents would remain a critical distribution channel.