| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 08/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 8 |
| Copyright: Other |
Analysis
New improvements: Rushton, right, promises customer demands will be met this summerWould Billy still have a jolly Butlins holiday?
A £140m revamp fails to rejuvenate British holiday brand. Tanya Jefferies reports
A MUCH-HERALDED £140m makeover at Butlins has apparently failed to bring British holidaymakers flocking back through its gates.In a first quarter trading statement, owner The Rank Group has admitted Butlins’ holiday bookings are down compared with last year, although it would not give specific figures.
This news must be a bitter disappointment to the company, considering the huge amount of money and effort it has invested in improving facilities and revitalising the brand.
Butlins’ three remaining sites at Bognor Regis, Skegness and Minehead underwent a huge transformation prior to their relaunch as Family Entertainment Resorts last year. Entertainment and catering facilities were rehoused in new weatherproof skydomes the size of Wembley stadium, and approximately £5,000 was spent on upgrading each accommodation unit.
Butlins also took the decision to concentrate on attracting families and to discourage younger customers, particularly rowdy single-sex parties.
Butlins managing director George Rushton, who took on the job at the end of last year following the departure of Tony Marshall, swiftly reintroduced winter packages aimed at young groups (although they are still barred in the family friendly summer months). Rushton stressed that the Butlins product is still developing and evolving in order to meet customer needs.
“I won’t pretend we got it all right – we didn’t,” he said. “We have accepted that and we are listening to what customers say we got right and what they say we got wrong.”
Customer research since the revamp has shown that, while holidaymakers were happy with what Butlins laid on for very young children, they wanted the company to offer more entertainment for other members of the family. As a result, the company is introducing a seniors’ club called Rendez Vous, a teen club called The Zone and additional evening entertainment for parents.
Holidaymakers also asked for more information to be available about events, more dancing and more variety in the evening shows.
Rushton said the changes customers wanted would cost very little and would be implemented for the 2000 season.
The question for Butlins is whether these relatively minor adjustments to the product will start to generate the bookings it needs to justify its massive investment over the past few years.
A spokeswoman for the Lincoln Co-operative Society in Lincoln said that although her travel agency sold a fairly high volume of Butlins holidays, there had been no great surge of interest among customers following the revamp last year.
She believes this is because the average customer still knows nothing about what Butlins has done to rejuvenate its product.
“There was no massive campaign to say the company had changed things,” she pointed out.
Meanwhile, some commentators think the company will always be hampered by its brand name.
“I think the biggest problem the company faces is that it is in a Catch 22 situation relating to the name Butlins,” said one British holiday industry expert.
“Butlins seems on the one hand to be held back by its name because it is synonymous with holiday camps, but on the other hand it is a powerful brand and they need to keep it. It’s a pity because the company has worked long and hard and piled a lot of money into the product.”
One City analyst said Butlins’ problems ran deeper than a dilemma over whether to ditch its old brand name or not.
“It’s the product not the brand,” he said. “The question is whether the product type has any long-term future in the marketplace. Or is it like the old seaside towns which have seen their business erode no matter what they do, until they become irrelevant to the holiday market?”
The history of Butlins
1936:Billy Butlin opened the first Butlins holiday camp at Skegness. He thought the entertainers looked a little grey and introduced the famous Redcoat uniform.