ABTA 2004: Hoberman makes pledge to trade

ABTA Convention Special: Lastminute.com chief executive Brent Hoberman warned agents to be wary of major US Internet firms and re-confirmed his commitment to the trade. Speaking in a face-to-face interview with moderator John Stapleton, Hoberman said it paid 37 million in commission to agents last year. Lastminute.com is keen to push its new dynamic packaging product, holidayandmore.com, through retailers. “The big US companies want to damage agents and operators, they’ve said that quite clearly,” said Hoberman. “We want to work with agents and give them net rate dynamic packages.” Hoberman defended the company’s recently announced 77m pounds loss for the 12 months to September 30, pointing out that 66 million was not a cash loss but a write-down of goodwill as a result of buying various companies, including Med Hotels for 22.2m pounds and Online Travel Corporation for 46.9m pounds. “The stock market is interested in where you are going in the future and we still have a value of 350m pounds,” said Hoberman. “A few years ago we were worth 30m pounds and everyone said we had the turnover of a small pub. Well, this small pub is now taking 1bn pounds worth of bookings,” he said. Hoberman defended lastminute.com’s decision to lay off 350 out of its 2,400 workers in the next 12 months. “It would be irresponsible of us not to take the action,” he said. “It is a consequence of the acquisitions and of us becoming more efficient. We have an obligation to get as efficient as we can.” He refused to rule out more cuts in the future. “I don’t think any chief executive would do that,” he said.