The president of Barrhead Travel parent, Internova Travel Group, says the retailer will focus on rethinking its infrastructure and operations rather than wild expansion this year.
Gabe Rizzi told Travel Weekly the pandemic had forced the group to “pivot” from its ambitious pre-Covid growth plans, which included plans for Barrhead to expand its travel agency network by up to 100 shops.
Speaking on a visit to London last week, he said: “We would have loved to have expanded wildly but we’re having to rethink our infrastructure.
“Having points of distribution everywhere don’t automatically grow business. Maybe less is more. Should we bring some together? Location is everything.”
He explained how Barrhead had recently moved its store in Dundee from the high street, where the footfall was low, to the city’s shopping centre, which gets more passing traffic.
“It’s about being in the right places to drive operational excellence in those locations,” he said.
Barrhead is also set to open a new store in Northwich in April.
“Our growth was inorganic,” said Rizzi. “But the pandemic has forced us to pivot.
“Inorganic growth means you have to spend a lot of money [to make acquisitions]. Now, it’s about operational excellence to drive organic growth.
“That means constantly marketing to repeat customers, and having better locations with better foot traffic so we can expand in our existing markets and also look to adjacent markets and industries.”
Rizzi added: “It’s about making sure our house is in order before we expand aggressively. But if you’re not growing, you’re doing the opposite, so we will absolutely get back to growth. You can absolutely count on us to expand; we just need to tighten our bootstraps first.”
He said acquisitions were not off the cards completely, but felt they would be more likely in corporate travel then leisure.
“Consolidation opportunities will present themselves in the pandemic,” he said, adding that the group would also be looking to make money in different ways.
“There are other things we can do with what we have got – such as with our consulting expertise or our data. We have so much really valuable data. Could we make that work harder for us? So it’s about new growth initiatives too.”
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