Flight Centre won’t buy Helloworld
Flight Centre is stacking up sales, with reports that it will acquire five separate travel groups both at home and internationally.
Despite the leisure sector sorting through tougher times, news from The Australian quote managing director Graham Skroo Turner saying the acquisitions would cost as much as $50 million, but that he was confident two or three of these purchases would come through for the company in the short term.
“Probably in the next year two or three of these (deals) will come to fruition,” Skroo said, adding they “will contribute to our company.”
Flight Centre’s acquisition spree comes despite a slow in outbound travel growth, per The Australian, which in the past year sagged 2-3%, well down on the 7% produced from 2013/14.
“It’s certainly a bit quieter but it’s still a growth market. We have plenty of opportunity to take market share off other people,” Skroo said.
But despite adding international travel specialist Top Deck to its basket last year, as well as a corporate travel group in Mexico earlier this year, Flight Centre has no plans to nab troubled competitor Helloworld, according to The Australian.
The Qantas-backed company produced a profit of just $6.9 million for the year to 2015, but while this was a solid turnaround against a $1.7 million loss the year before, was not enough to tempt Flight Centre.
“Obviously we heard about it and we thought about looking at Helloworld and decided against it,” Skroo said.
“I don’t think it falls into our portfolio. It would have been a bit of a distraction, but we are looking at others that are smaller and more strategic for us.”
Apart from a slowing outbound market, Flight Centre was also hit by lower leisure travel margins.
The travel agency said it had also heavily invested in new systems and strategies as well as a new wage structure for front-end consultants, at significant cost to the company.
And as a result of stopping short of its ambitious profit targets for 2015, Flight Centre’s senior exec salaries were slashed, including that of Skroo, The Australian reported.
Per Flight Centre’s 2015 annual report, Skroo’s total remuneration was $518,238, down on the $657,073 he earned in 2014.
But as the owner of the global brand, he also raked in more than $23 million in fully franked dividends this year from the 15.244 million shares he owns in the company. Not too shabby.
“It’s not that unusual (to have a low base salary) when you have a significant parcel of shares in the business,” Turner said.
Flight Centre’s chief operating officer, Melanie Waters-Ryan, took home a pay packet of $986,127 in 2015, down from $1.082 million the previous year, while executive general manager Rob Flint received $580,068, down from $795,219.
“The average Flight Centre senior executive earned less during 2015 when bottom-line results did not meet initial expectations,” the company stated in its annual report.
Skroo has long been judged one of Australia’s best value CEOs, and was identified as the second lowest paid CEO in an ASX S&P 100 company for the 2014 fiscal year.
Image: Flight Centre
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
-
Latest comments
Latest News
Collette goes off the beaten track with Canyon Country tour
To be clear TW is not advocating actually walking off the beaten track. Avoid the coyotes. Stay on the beaten track.
Intrepid & Korean Tourism Organisation team up to give agents a cooking masterclass
These guys learnt that Korean cooking is more than just putting kimchi on 2-minute noodles (as we once thought).
Winner, winner! Intrepid reveals the 9 lucky agents that won $2k
Who won the incentive? Which Intrepid trip will they spend it on? What day of the week is it again? Where am I? Huh?
Corporate Traveller reports 42% increase in Easter traffic this year
Business travellers just love Easter! Expect plenty of chocolate stained documents returning to the office on Tuesday.
Turbulent year wiped $384m off Qantas brand value: Report
Meanwhile, eating tuna at your desk can damage your own personal office brand value by several thousand dollars.
FAMIL: Room-Res & Singapore Tourism Board shows agents the Lion City’s roar
Click this article to see a man very impressed by a 20-layer chocolate cake. We're not kidding, he loved it!
Oceania Cruises offers sailors free pre-cruise hotel stay
Looking for ways to make your holidays as long as possible? Look no further.
Bonza launches new website to compliment app, agent portal
Does news about an airline's website fill you with ecstasy, glee and joy? Get your hit of the good stuff here.
MTA agents attends ‘Lunch ‘n’ Learn’ with AMA Waterways
When organising the event, Lunch 'n' Learn beat out Dinner 'n' Divulge and Breakfast 'n' Banter. Understandably so.
Travelmarvel reveals 2025 South America tours
If you spot any typos in the newsletter today it is because TW became distracted Googling images of Machu Picchu.
Tourists from 5 countries could be BANNED from visiting Australia
Anthony Albanese's immigration laws could impact tourism from certain countries.
Just how many passengers will Qantas & Jetstar hop around this Easter?
Airline workers are ready for gleeful Easter travellers! Also prepared for sticky children with chocolate on their face.
Air New Zealand gets ready for bumper Easter weekend
Air NZ gears up for travelling passengers this Easter, while TW looks to beat our egg eating record. 117 here we come!
Four Seasons Yachts reveals first itineraries to the Caribbean & Mediterranean
These trips look so good we wish there were five seasons! Alright, we'll see ourselves out...
FAMIL: Travellers Choice treats top agents to the wonders of Rotorua
This one's got plenty of famil pics and no one looks shockingly hungover in them! Clearly no TW staffers were there.
European Waterways celebrates 50th anniversary with week-long founders cruise
Plan on celebrating your 50th anniversary with a bottle of Moët and fairy bread? European Waterways has better ideas.
100th route! Jetstar celebrates the launch of Brisbane-Avalon with 12 hour sale
Jetstar knocks a ton and celebrates with a sale while TW once scored a ton and celebrated with about 17 beers.
Record-breaking year for NSW as visitor expenditure soars past $50 billion
Enjoy running round the Opera House? Be prepared to elbow even more tourists out the way.
Norwegian Cruise Line makes play for solo travellers
NCL ensuring you don't have to go trawling Tinder to find a cruise partner. Thank goodness, we were sick of catfishing.
Entire Travel Group’s Canada and Europe 2024/25 brochures are out now
Entire's new brochure is bittersweet; it both informs your clients and makes you envious of the holiday they'll take.
Malaysia Airlines adds 3 new destinations & A330neo seats
More seats means cheaper airfares and more money to spend on overpriced airport sandwiches. Woohoo!
Two divine days onboard Crystal Serenity
It's only pure serenity onboard this ship. Anxiety, agitation and anguish have been rejected by the bouncer.
How the Globus Family of Brands elevates coach touring: Travel Weekly TV with Chris Fundell
Chris' here so you don't think coaches mean peeling your thighs off a sticky leather seat every time you stand up!
The Flight Centre Foundation gears up for massive 2024 with 3 new board members
The foundation looks to invest $200k this year, spurring the TW journos to figure out how to qualify as a charity.
Barking Owl Communications to head up Anantara & Avani in ANZ
Fellow PR competitors had been barking up the wrong tree even thinking of bidding for this job!
Amex GBT to purchase CWT for $871m
It's big deals like this that get a firm handshake - hence the sore hands over at the CWT and Amex GBT offices.
1000MTG’s second global conference reminds agents to ‘strive and thrive’
Alongside messages to 'strive' and 'thrive' were those to 'survive', 'drive', 'arrive' and 'jive' (when appropriate).
Qantas A330 makes “loud bang”, pilots forced to shut down one engine
Qantas refusing to let Boeing have all the headlines in aviation world today!
GX Community Tourism Summit 2024 location revealed!
The new location has arrived and it'll blow your socks off! Time for another trip to Target for more socks then.
Visiting the destination my Mum didn’t want me to
Yet again, this journo has been a stress to his mother. Discover how this trip spurred his mother's anxiety here.
Agents come out of their shells at P&O’s turtle hatchery event
For some, it's a few glasses of bubbles to lure them out of their shell. For these agents, it was a bit more literal.
Boeing cleanout: CEO, chair to go as safety crisis plagues the manufacturer
CEOs are falling thick and fast these days. We should have started up a bingo game with their headshots in the office.
Virgin looks to swap MAX 10 order for MAX 8s amid Boeing delays: Reports
Virgin has changed its order for something smaller. Much like we have to at Maccas following a worrying doctor's visit.
Club Med unveils newest luxury yacht for 2024/25 early bird sale
This yacht is preserved for the early birds! Night Owls may also get onboard depending how late they stay up.
Abercrombie & Kent 2024 Asia Portfolio is here
Round up the family and get planning an Asia jaunt. Or, if they're hard to handle, brush them all and go it alone!
Elevate your earnings: Final days to secure double commission with Inspiring Vacations’ March offer
What could inspire you to sell more Inspiring Vacations? Double commission of course! That's all the inspiration needed.
Tara, although you obviously have a personal axe to grind (you ignored a key point in the article – helloworld has had a significant turnaround and is trading profitably), regardless, there is no way FC will consider acquiring it as it needs a strong competitor to keep the ACCC off its back. No other brand in the market has that type of clout. That, Amy, is “relevance”.
Since when was helloworld even up for sale? Even if helloworld was selling, I highly doubt it would sell to its competitor.
Way to go Travel Weekly, constantly showing your bias…..
Tara, actually selling helloworld, is the only thing that will make that company relevant. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 3 years, you will have noticed helloworld losing millions of dollars year on year. They have had more CEO’S than Australia has had prime minsters in that time, not one of them bringing anything to the company apart from bleeding the company dry with their crazy salaries, like the whole of the executive team. The board, who are mainly Qantas personnel have become a laughing stock in the industry and have made their competitors like Flight Centre, Webjet and Magellan laugh all the way to the bank. I have to ask the question, why on earth would you think helloworld would not sell to it’s competitor ? What a strange thing to say, who do you think whey would sell to, Woolworths or Coles? Dear oh dear.
Thanks for the comment Tara, but it wasn’t intended to show bias, merely report on the news and facts as they appear. Skroo was asked if he would consider buying Helloworld, to which he gave a detailed answer why it was in fact considered, and why they decided against it. We didn’t make this up. This was a newsworthy angle to run with and an interesting concept to consider.
That’s the way we saw it, so that’s how we wrote it. Sorry if you saw bias in this – but thanks as always for the feedback!