Si Holidays to be sold off to reimburse unpaid agents

Closed sign in a shop showroom with reflections - red sign over desaturated background

By Hannah Edensor

It’s officially time to say farewell to Si Holidays.

Well, at least to the version of the company currently existing.

The company is looking for “expressions of interest” for the assets of the company.

Yesterday, fellow trade press site KarryOn reported the company has begun looking for buyers, as advertised on the website Dem Asia Group.

The notification is in the form of an ad.

The full ad reads:

South Pacific Fiji and Asia wholesale travel specialist: urgent expressions of interest

Expressions of Interest are sought for the assets of ACN 615 188 746 Pty Limited (formerly Freestyle Travel Pty Limited) (In Liquidation).

The Liquidator is seeking expressions of interest for the acquisition of the company’s trademarks, brands, customer database of over 7,000 travel agents, information technology, software and sales platforms and forward order book. All assets are being offered on an unencumbered basis.

Interested parties may evaluate the assets following the lodgement of an expression of interest and executed Confidentiality Agreement to Elena Fiakos via email at elena.fiakos@demasiagroup.com by close of business Friday, 16 March 2018.

This follows news that the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) had excluded Si Holidays and all associated operational brands from the Supplier Failure Benefit provided by the federation’s Chargeback Scheme last week.

This included Freestyle Holidays, The Collection and Waitui.

In a statement, the AFTA warned that any bookings accepted after 8 March 2018 16:00 will not be protected by ACS and members should not accept credit or debit card payments for this supplier.

Si’s future began to look uncertain when the company confirmed it was in takeover talks with another wholesaler, based in Australia.

The challenges faced by Si Holidays were initially blamed on a ‘consolidating market’ and ‘high operational cost environment’, both of which had affected the company.

Managing Director, Tui Eruera said at the time: “The travel wholesale market has proven to be very challenging environment and consolidation seems like the logical step forward for the company.”

Adding, “IT IS NO SECRET THAT WE HAVE EXPERIENCED SEVERAL CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES OVER THE PAST THREE MONTHS.

“This is predominately down to our recent implementation of VCC and the move to source all product dynamically.

“Our pursuit of automation within the business has proven costly and a takeover will bring the required boost back to the business to continue this pursuit.”

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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