A deal to merge the commercial operations of Elite Travel Group and Advantage Travel Centres has been announced in a week of consolidation in the consortia market.
Speculation has long been rife in the industry that the two could merge, and the announcement – made at Elite’s overseas conference at the weekend – follows the finalisation of the Worldchoice/TTA merger earlier this month. The vote was unanimous by Elite’s board.
The deal struck between the two consortia, after nine months of negotiations, will see bothr emain independent of one another and retain their own head offices.
Subscriptions will continue to be paid to each of the consortia as before, although Elite agents are being registered as Advantage members in order to benefit fromits commercial deals.
Similarly, Advantage agents will be able to use Elite suppliers at agreed terms and there are no plans at this stage to cut back on supplier deals.
The core change comes in future commercial negotiations, which will be undertaken for both consortia -which together have 806 retail outlets anda turnover of £2.6 billion -while they will also share both marketing and technology resources.
Advantage chief executive John McEwan said: “By helping Elite members build their business we get more sales for our financial services business.”
Elite marketing director Peter Buckell said the new deal solely affects commercial arrangements. But he did not rule out the possibility of the two consortia working even closer in the future, adding: “[Our relationship]is like a marriage -you’ve got to have the honeymoon first.”
Buckell said the merger could not have gone ahead while Advantage was still a member of Triton.
He added: “The Elite boardand members had voted onjoining Triton [before] and there was no way we could go back on it.”
The membership made a clear statement of intent when, in 2005, theyvoted by 65% against joining Triton due to concerns that Elite would be forced to push Global product because ofreliance on its technology. Elite members doubted whether Triton could secure good commission rates from the then big four.
News timeline
- May 25 2007:Advantage withdraws from Triton merger talks
- May 31 2007:Rumours surface of a tie-up between Advantage and Elite
- September 11 2008:Advantage announces plans to leave Triton
- September 28 2008:Elite announces it is to work with Advantage on financial products