Holiday Taxis is to retain sales and marketing director Russell Parr but in a new role heading up strategy and project work for the transfer specialist.
Parr had planned to leave the business this summer to be closer to his family in the Midlands. The new job will involve only one day a week in the Burgess Hill-based office.
A replacement is being sought for Parr’s role as sales and marketing director, which will include dealing with the trade, and an appointment is due to be made in the next month.
Chief executive Paul Stanyer said: “Russell is being retained in a new role to use his expertise on projects that will come to fruition next year but allow him to work from home more. He will be looking at mainly technology related projects and looking at our own technology offering.”
The company has recently improved its back-office technology to allow more flexibility, a faster system and better structured deals with distribution partners, including travel agents, he added.
Stanyer said the company’s approach had changed to both leisure and business travel agents and partners and was now focused on putting together deals more tailored to businesses’ specific needs, based on reliability rather than on price.
He said: “Now our model is not necessarily to work with everyone but those we do work with, we want to understand their businesses and how to effectively become the transfer department for that company. Our competitors have gone down the road of piling high and selling cheap, which we are happy for them to do.
“We are already trying to get across to many partners that they should be choosing the most reliable service, not necessarily the cheapest. People decide whether to go on holiday on price but they don’t decide on a transfer based on price.”
Although this means the company is not always the cheapest in the market, it aims to be no more than 10% more expensive than rivals, he added. “On many occasions we are cheaper anyway,” he added.