Woolies campaign just a sweet dream

TravelMole Comment by Jeremy Skidmore: Woolworths had, by its own admission, a difficult Christmas. Analysts described it as disastrous. The answer, it seems, is to enter the travel industry.

The retailer suffered because confectionary sales were down (pick and mix wasn’t that popular this year), and many people bought DVDs and CDs online.

Although chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones is bullish about its overall trading position, particularly after announcing a deal to supply music, DVDs, games and books to Virgin Retail, it’s looking for new forms of revenue.

But is the travel industry the answer? I doubt it.

Often outsiders see it as a quick way to make easy money, particularly as the internet has brought down the cost of entry so much that any company can have a go at selling online. But thousands of agents and operators know what a difficult market it is.

Woolworths’ big unique selling point is that it has a famous brand that is synonymous with value for money. But I think it will need more than that to get people to suddenly switch to them for their two weeks in the sun.

The problem is that this industry is awash with companies and brands that shout ‘deal’, ‘bargain’ and ‘cheap’. I won’t give them free publicity by naming them, but I’m sure several companies spring to mind.

Since people starting booking on the internet in earnest a few years ago, there has been a dramatic shift from a holiday being perceived as an aspirational purchase to something you can pick up for the less than the price of a good dinner.

Woolworths will have a tough enough job selling holidays on its website, although it will no doubt pick up some business from the 250,000 visitors it has each day.

But the decision to open travel desks in some or all of its 821 shops seems incredible.

Does it not know that professional travel agents, with a wealth of knowledge and experience, are struggling to keep their heads above water?

Walk into an outlet of Woolies and you feel you’re in a time warp compared with many other retail outlets. No doubt it believes that selling holidays will give a fresh look to the shops. And, at an average cost of around £500 per head, it could be far more lucrative than offering shelves full of CDs.

But unless you have trained staff on hand, your customer service is non existent and the ‘agency’ will be a pale imitation of what’s on offer round the corner at a proper travel retailer.

And if Woolworths decides to offer experienced staff, then suddenly those margins don’t look so good.

Lastminute.com travel director John Bevan doesn’t seem too worried when he says, tongue-in-cheek, that it’ll be interesting to see if people want to buy holidays with their pick and mix.

I agree, it will be very interesting.