Webjet finds an agent to love

By Kate Webster

Webjet Limited might not be too kind to the Travel Agents of Australia, however they found a way to buddy up to European holiday company, Thomas Cook.

Announced yesterday, Webjet’s European online accommodation business, Sunhotels, has signed a strategic sourcing partnership with Thomas Cook, one of Europe’s leading holiday companies.

The agreement means Sunhotels will take responsibility for the majority of the volume of Thomas Cook’s complementary hotel business. As part of the new deal, Thomas Cook will transfer around 3,000 hotel contracts from across the group to Sunhotels, adding to an already substantial existing hotel inventory of hotels from across the world which will also be provided to Thomas Cook under the terms of the agreement.

Thomas Cook will focus on growing its core differentiated holiday offering, while at the same time giving customers a wider range and choice of complementary hotels in a more efficient way.

Under the terms of the agreement, Webjet will pay Thomas Cook £21 million for entering into the supply agreement, the transfer of hotel contracts to Webjet and implementation costs of the deal.

Thomas Cook chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said the new relationship with Webjet will transform the way in which Thomas Cook offers a wide choice of hotels to customers.

“It provides us with a low-cost production platform for our complementary offer across all our source markets, enabling us to streamline our systems and processes while at the same time ensuring greater certainty over the quality of hotel we offer our customers. This frees us up to focus on growing our differentiated holiday offering, the area where we know Thomas Cook can really make a difference.”

Webjet’s managing director, John Guscic added “Webjet is delighted to be entering into a partnership with such an iconic travel brand as Thomas Cook. Like Webjet, the Thomas Cook Group is a results driven, customer first organization, focused on delivering the best customer experiences in the market. Working together, we are confident this partnership will deliver superior results for both parties. Furthermore, this agreement allows Webjet to escalate its growth profile in the dynamic European B2B market.”

Webjet yesterday announced its full year profit of $22.2 million, with its traditional business model (B2C) increasing 27 percent. However, it’s new B2B division selling packages wholesale to retailers, saw the biggest growth up 37 percent.

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