EXCLUSIVE: Bankruptcy, squandered cash and my arrogance – Nick Wrightman

Tapestry Holidays founder Nick Wrightman could be forced into bankruptcy over the company’s failure and may lose the house he shares with wife Viv, who is pregnant with their second child, and daughter India.

In an emotional interview with TravelMole Wrightman, who stressed he did not expect sympathy from anyone in the industry, revealed he had recently ploughed his own cash into the business he started 15 years ago, in a desperate attempt to ride the slump in bookings.

“We mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt to try to get through the crisis and I put £1 million of my own money in,” he said.

“It isn’t great timing for us as a family, but Viv and I knew what we were doing and knew what could happen if we didn’t find a company to rescue us.

“Although we have a bond to pay off holidaymakers, the banks took personal guarantees from us this year and so, effectively, we will owe them what they pay out.

“I’ll know more in a couple of weeks. I’ve got a nice house in Chiswick, but I don’t know for how much longer. We just have to wait and hope.

“Bankruptcy is an option and it seems an easy option these days, but I’ll fight tooth and nail not to do it. It’s just something within me: I don’t want to give in like that.”

Reflecting on the collapse, Wrightman said the company was brought down by the actions of certain people, his own arrogance and dire market conditions.

Several years ago, an individual, who cannot be named for legal reasons, squandered £1.5 million of the company’s money on a life of champagne, fast cars and lapdancers.

The story was kept under wraps despite being well known in the industry at the time and, although Wrightman admits that overcapacity in the market and a slump in bookings to Turkey were largely responsible for the company’s failure, he believes he would still be trading had it not been for that episode.

“It was a huge amount of money for a company of our size and we were always on the back foot from that. We had to borrow £900,000 from friends and £400,000 from insurance companies to plough cash back into the business.

“It also had an impact on our future, because when we survived it, we were so relieved, we just relaxed and didn’t keep a tight control on costs.”

Wrightman said he was also hit hard when sales and marketing director Andrew Lee left in 2003 to set up his own company, Exclusive Escapes, and then signed up some of Tapestry’s best properties. Lee did nothing wrong, but Wrightman admits the development left him bitter.

“There was a gradual build up of properties and our overseas staff that he signed up. He offered them more money. It’s business I suppose, but I was bitter about that. That definitely cost us and contributed to us losing business.”

But Wrightman also blames himself for the failure.

“The collapse was due to a combination of things, including my own arrogance. We actually had a good year in 2002, and after September 11 and surviving the money going missing, we were so pleased, we didn’t take control of the costs.

“We bought bigger offices in Hammersmith and we didn’t sweat the business enough. Andrew (Lee) wanted a bigger office, so of course I had to have a bigger office.

“Then I bought an Aston Martin. I cringe now when I think about it and say to myself ‘Nick, how could you?’

“But we’d been through such a lot and I wrongly thought I deserved it. When you see big money coming in to your bank account, it’s easy to forget that it’s not necessarily yours.

“Also, I wasn’t bright enough to see the impact dynamic packaging would have on the market. I thought Tapestry was a good enough brand and that people would stay loyal to us even if it they could book cheaper holidays themselves, but that wasn’t always the case.

“We did have exclusive properties, but that’s not enough because many people just buy a similar holiday cheaper. We also took a bath in Croatia and Corfu in 2005. It was the first time I didn’t go and look at the properties myself and it was a mistake.

“I eventually cut our capacity from 32,000 to 22,000, but I should have done that earlier. This year, Turkey was 48 per cent of our programme and we underperformed by £20 per passenger. We had too many empty seats in June and July and we were smacked in the gob by bird flu. You could see the big companies massively pulling out of Turkey, but it was our bread and butter.”

Wrightman said he had not made any plans for the future, as his priority was to tie up the loose ends with Tapestry.

“I’ll just have to take stock,” he said. “I’d love to do something else again myself, but I’m not proud. I’ll do whatever I need to do to provide for my family.”

Report by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)