It’s been 20 years since Tom Manwaring bought Express Travel Group. The decision to sell it to Helloworld Travel Limited was not taken lightly.
“It was the right time,” the Express Travel Group CEO told agents at this year’s ETXG conference in Singapore.
“I think in every business, there comes a time and if you don’t recognise the time, you can actually miss a great opportunity.”
Over the years, Manwaring learned the importance of seeing opportunity in crisis and the value in change.
“It happened when I first bought ETG (which was OETG – Orient Express Travel Group) in 2003.”
Because it wasn’t long after his purchase that SARS hit.
“Business collapsed in Asia. 90% of the business I bought was Asia. So we learned a lesson from that.
“Every little change on the way there is a lesson to be learned. And this particular one was to diversify your business.”
So that’s what they did. New brands joined. And the company grew to represent the largest group of fully independent travel agencies in Australia. It rode the waves of the good times and the not so good. And then COVID hit.
“A light bulb goes off and you say how can I sustain this business with my house on the line? How can I actually stay in this business if something came again? So when you come out of something like that you have to learn the lesson.
“You have to act. If you don’t act, you’re dead.
“In the business that we’re in at the moment, size matters.”
And Helloworld Travel Limited is big.
What got the ball rolling?
“So a situation came about where we required a new ticketing system. We found that Helloworld’s SmartTickets system was the best on the block.”
Express Travel Group enquired into leasing the system for a longer period as an independent operator. And then one thing led to another.
“We couldn’t keep up as we were,” Manwaring told Karryon in Singapore.
“Even the larger businesses were struggling. So we had to join the dance or get left out.”
“ETG was basically a mini Helloworld,” Tom admits.
“We had the structure, we had the different divisions, had the staff. We just couldn’t afford to buy new systems.
“So this plugin that we’ve got now and with the leadership in there… it’s going to create a boon.”
“Together with Helloworld we now form a very formidable picture. We don’t want one player in town, we know that.”
“It’s going to be a good marriage.”
What’s changing?
It was pretty evident at the conference that Manwaring is beloved, with many of the agents worried that after the sale he was riding off into the sunset.
But he made clear from the start that he is staying.
“I have a minimum three-year contract and I’ll be looking forward to those three years and beyond,” he told agents.
“I’m not the cut and run guy.”
“I’ve got a big job to do over the next two to five years,” he told Karryon.
And, more importantly, to Manwaring, “it’s not all about Tom”.
While he sees the loyalty as an accolade for all ETG has achieved, Manwaring credits the great ETG team. A team that by and large is not going to change.
“It is a collective and that’s what makes it transferable.”
“Agents will be dealing with the same people. Those people are sitting in generally the same offices and have the same phone numbers. Our complete sales network which is our link to all of our agents are staying.
“So there’s change at the top of the tree, maybe in terms of the structure of the company, but then the roots of the tree that are strong all remain the same.”
“Our whole team, bar one or two have come across. All but one of the agents have come over. And I think that’s a fantastic testament to people wanting to see what’s going to happen and also having confidence in the ETG group.”
Tom admits that he feels “pretty drained at the moment”. But it’s not just the sale of ETG. Part of it comes from AFTA’s morph to ATIA (Tom remains the chair of ATIA) “and all that pent up pressure from COVID”. Tom is now in Greece for the next few weeks.
“We just need to take a little bit of time now to just breathe in and look at, from a personal point of view, what the sale means to us. We haven’t had time to do that,” he told Karryon.
But what about ETG’s independent agents?
The news of the buyout was met by some with trepidation, but most agents expressed that because ETG is not a franchise model, they are not too worried about the changes.
“We own our own businesses. We’re our own bosses,” an agent told Karryon.
Manwaring agreed.
“We’ll remain the cheerleaders for the independents,” he told Karryon.
“Independent means you do as you want, you build your own business, and that’s true of all the businesses inside ETG.
“All the brands we’re bringing across to Helloworld will sit alongside the various brands within Helloworld and they will compete internally.
“We know there’s business for all, but combined with the power of Helloworld, we think that we will double the size of the business.”
Karryon was a guest of Express Travel Group. Stay tuned for more news (and fun stuff) from ETGX 2023.
