Advantage and Airtours will hold crisis talks this week to try to rekindle the troubled alliance. Steve Jones reports.
WHEN the chief architect of an ambitious plan admits it wasn’t such a good idea after all, the writing is surely on the wall.
That is the prospect now facing the ill-fated Advantage/Airtours franchise which has seen its greatest defender and supporter desert the alliance.
From the outset, former Advantage managing director Ron Muir said he would live or die on the success of the franchise. He fell on his sword after admitting it had failed to deliver its promise to members.
But now the dust has settled, attention is focusing on how, or if, the franchise can be saved.
At a crisis meeting on Thursday, the two parties must decide whether the deal is worth pursuing at all. Ever since its inception in the summer of 1998, the franchise has been in turmoil.
The launch was delayed, Airtours franchise frontman Tony Bennett left, rules imposed on members were scrapped amid complaints from agents, the promised Matchmaker technology was ditched and the central accounting system – which was supposed to make commission payments more efficient – has never materialised. Even Matchmaker’s replacement, Web to Windows, has been indefinitely delayed after the European Commission raised doubts about the impartiality of its search systems.
Among the early concessions to members was a decision to axe sales targets. At the time, Airtours dismissed targets as unimportant, confident that commission uplifts would persuade franchised agents to sell the product without the need for such measures.
Yet this week, the operator is expected to propose a reintroduction of the controversial clause as well as a separate management team to oversee the franchise. However, industry sources said both Advantage and Airtours are now looking for a way out.
“Airtours’ problem is that it has £3m tied up in this and it will blot its copy book if it calls it a day,” said one source. “The meeting this week was more about how both can walk away without losing face.”
While Airtours is perturbed at the poor sales of Airtours Holidays, Advantage feels let down by Helmshore.
Wellington Travel owner and Advantage board member Di Baker said: “There have been several broken promises. Tony Bennett stood up in front of many Advantage members and made promises which have not been kept. Targets could work as long as they are achievable but we have to have evidence that UKLG will deliver what it promises.”
The broken promises include the lack of technology, poor supply of brochures brochures and less favourable deals than those offered to Going Places.
“With hindsight you could argue that we rushed into the deal with Airtours,” she said.
Other remedies could include releasing commission which is currently withheld from members to pay for marketing, advertising and an on-the-road sales team.
“The problem is that some members want money in their pocket while others realise the importance of marketing the brand nationally,” said Baker.
Bell Travel managing director Val Foylan also said she would accept targets but added: “There has not been enough discipline in pushing UKLG products or even racking.
“You have to get in bed with someone whether it be Thomson or Airtours or whoever. Historically it is not very encouraging but it can survive if there is a rethink.”
Paul Brooks, from Brooks Travel in Stockport, said: “The Advantage board needs to be more aggressive.
“There is awareness of the need to support preferredsuppliers such as UKLG but very little guidance on how to do it. We have increased sales and I have suggested holding sessions where agencies like ours can offer advice to other shops.”
Virtually the entire franchise team went to ground this week with UKLG franchise director Andrew Williams, Advantage commercial director Neil Armorgie and president Roger Smith all on annual leave.
But for all its public insistence that the franchise can still survive and prosper, Advantage must surely be wishing it had never signed the alliance deal with Airtours in the first place.
The feeling from Helmshore is probably the same.
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