What next for Sunsail?

[dom]

TUI has finally decided to sell its "Specialist Group" subsidiary which owns the loss-making Sunsail brand. A quick run of the slide ruler over the business would question whether the company is worth that much as a going concern.

Early days yet though: Watch this Space!


TUI's announcement this morning:

"Specialist Group is a profitable portfolio of specialist travel brands led by strong management teams. Followingcompletion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integratedmodel, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the TUI brand, therefore we announce our intentionto dispose the business as one transaction.

...Marketing ofthe remaining Specialist Group is expected to commence Autumn 2016."

http://www.tuigroup.com/damfiles/de...l_EN.pdf-d4fdaef2278782a52717957d8efc6f3d.pdf


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[vyv_cox]

TUI has finally decided to sell its "Specialist Group" subsidiary which owns the loss-making Sunsail brand. A quick run of the slide ruler over the business would question whether the company is worth that much as a going concern.

Early days yet though: Watch this Space!


TUI's announcement this morning:

"Specialist Group is a profitable portfolio of specialist travel brands led by strong management teams. Followingcompletion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integratedmodel, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the TUI brand, therefore we announce our intentionto dispose the business as one transaction.

...Marketing ofthe remaining Specialist Group is expected to commence Autumn 2016."

http://www.tuigroup.com/damfiles/de...l_EN.pdf-d4fdaef2278782a52717957d8efc6f3d.pdf


​

It takes special skill training to write gobbldeygook like that. I suppose there is a degree course in it nowadays.

 

[RupertW]

It takes special skill training to write gobbldeygook like that. I suppose there is a degree course in it nowadays.

The scary thing is that it all made perfect sense to me - I suspect I may have started to write like that too.
I must return to generic simple English like "Be careful that water leaking through the little round screwy hole doesn't make a puddle on the metal shelf thing that the steering back blade hinge goes through or the shelf will go brown and weak like a biscuit and then the steering wheel won't work". So much easier to succinctly describe an engineering problem with no technical terms.

 

[dom]

It takes special skill training to write gobbldeygook like that. I suppose there is a degree course in it nowadays.

I've got you on my radar vyv.

Suspect TUI are just running the idea up the flagpole at this stage. We now need an idea shower (brainstorming is discriminatory to epilepsy sufferers) to get the ball going and drill down into the post-synergies central outcome to see if the idea has legs.

Will ping you an email when my thinking is joined up ...

 

[Tidewaiter2]

TUI has finally decided to sell its "Specialist Group" subsidiary which owns the loss-making Sunsail brand. A quick run of the slide ruler over the business would question whether the company is worth that much as a going concern.

Early days yet though: Watch this Space!


TUI's announcement this morning:

"Specialist Group is a profitable portfolio of specialist travel brands led by strong management teams. Followingcompletion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integratedmodel, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the TUI brand, therefore we announce our intentionto dispose the business as one transaction.

...Marketing ofthe remaining Specialist Group is expected to commence Autumn 2016."

http://www.tuigroup.com/damfiles/de...l_EN.pdf-d4fdaef2278782a52717957d8efc6f3d.pdf


​

Or in plain speak, "it wasn't the cash cow we thought it was going to be, the CEO has gorn off sailing, as they've finished the Jack Aubrey books, we'll have one last summer of company travel jollies/freebies then flog it off to some dreaming mugs"

 

[jimi]

Once upon a time Sunsail before it was taken over by the big boys was a great little company, the villa holidays (Yedi Tepe, Marmaris Gallini etc etc ) with child daycare, dinghies and little day yachts provided great holidays for families. The Solent fleet provided training for the flotillas. IMHO the market niche they occupied with the villa holiday and or villa holiday /flotilla combination still exists and is crying out to be occupied.

 

[jac]

Once upon a time Sunsail before it was taken over by the big boys was a great little company, the villa holidays (Yedi Tepe, Marmaris Gallini etc etc ) with child daycare, dinghies and little day yachts provided great holidays for families. The Solent fleet provided training for the flotillas. IMHO the market niche they occupied with the villa holiday and or villa holiday /flotilla combination still exists and is crying out to be occupied.

I can see that making sense as it's aa longish operational season. I have always wondered about the solent fleet though. Is there enough corporate business these days to sustain a large fleet of race orientated boats 52 weeks a year.

 

[Giblets]

I can see that making sense as it's aa longish operational season. I have always wondered about the solent fleet though. Is there enough corporate business these days to sustain a large fleet of race orientated boats 52 weeks a year.

Judging by the numbers showing on AIS on most days I think the answer to that must be "Yes".

 

[Tam Lin]

Will they be flogging their boats off cheap?

 

[Skylark]

TUI's announcement this morning:

"Specialist Group is a profitable portfolio of specialist travel brands led by strong management teams. Followingcompletion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integratedmodel, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the TUI brand, therefore we announce our intentionto dispose the business as one transaction.


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Anyone who writes utter rubbish like this should be taken into the car park and publically flogged, imho (metaphorically, of course).

Is this a product of dumbing down of higher education and the relatively recent introduction of a degree in business?

 

[dom]

Is this a product of dumbing down of higher education and the relatively recent introduction of a degree in business?

Okay, as this is obviously bugging a lot of people here's a vid explaining how it happened
(4mins, Irish, so bad language warning )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sowPM89BRyc

 

[jac]

Anyone who writes utter rubbish like this should be taken into the car park and publically flogged, imho (metaphorically, of course).

Is this a product of dumbing down of higher education and the relatively recent introduction of a degree in business?

Slight thread drift, sorry. A service provider based in an office in Manchester needed a piece of information that I had. He wrote an e-mail to his Vice President, International Desk, based in one or other N American city. In turn, said VP forwarded the e-mail to my company VP Finance, Corporate office in another N American city. In turn to my group VP, based in The Netherlands. He forwarded it to me for response. I'm also based in Greater Manchester. My conclusion is that contemporary educated people don't possess the skill nor the common sense to pick up a telephone.

Mixed feelings on this.

Every role creates it's own language / jargon and this is no different. The only phrase in there that I would seek clarity on would be content centric. I would assume it means that the experience ( i.e. content) of the holiday is key wich I would have thought encompassed sailing??

As for the picking up the phone bit. Easy to do if you know who to call but I suspect that in the case above he would have no idea who to call to initiate the dialogue. Very annoying though when an email request turns into email tennis rather than a 5 minute phone call.

 

[dom]

Mixed feelings on this.

Every role creates it's own language / jargon and this is no different. The only phrase in there that I would seek clarity on would be content centric. I would assume it means that the experience ( i.e. content) of the holiday is key wich I would have thought encompassed sailing??

As I work in finance there is one small nuance you may have overlooked: when companies are making money they're usually pretty clear how they're doing it, how that 5-Yr Plan is being skillfully implemented by the management and so on.

When it all goes tits a good management school will have equipped them with all the necessary management bull***** to ensure that nobody quite knows what's going on, other than it's nobody's fault of course !

 

[Supine Being]

"Specialist Group is a profitable portfolio of specialist travel brands led by strong management teams. Followingcompletion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integratedmodel, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the TUI brand, therefore we announce our intentionto dispose the business as one transaction.

...Marketing ofthe remaining Specialist Group is expected to commence Autumn 2016."

http://www.tuigroup.com/damfiles/de...l_EN.pdf-d4fdaef2278782a52717957d8efc6f3d.pdf
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I think what they're trying to say is "We thought we could sell this to Dave and Sharron as an upgrade from their usual all-inclusive in Benidorm, but it turns out that you actually have to know how to sail a boat before we can let you sail one of our boats, so it doesn't work."

 

[jac]

As I work in finance there is one small nuance you may have overlooked: when companies are making money they're usually pretty clear how they're doing it, how that 5-Yr Plan is being skillfully implemented by the management and so on.

When it all goes tits a good management school will have equipped them with all the necessary management bull***** to ensure that nobody quite knows what's going on, other than it's nobody's fault of course !

I'm also in finance and 100% recognise what you're saying!!

 

[DerekC]

Travel companies often make a loss during the winter months. The TUI Group half-year results have been announced and are quite good when compared with previous year.
I guess it makes sense to milk it one last time...

 

[Tranona]

Anyone who writes utter rubbish like this should be taken into the car park and publically flogged, imho (metaphorically, of course).

Is this a product of dumbing down of higher education and the relatively recent introduction of a degree in business?

Nothing wrong with degrees in business - and neither are they new. If they are well designed they draw heavily on contributing disciplines as foundations for understanding how businesses work.

The jargon does not come from this source, but from the anti intellectual strands of literature such as the airport books and the people who read them. As demonstrated here the sole purpose of jargon is to hide truths - and used by people who are unable to see truth.

 

[Blue Sunray]

Once upon a time Sunsail before it was taken over by the big boys was a great little company, the villa holidays (Yedi Tepe, Marmaris Gallini etc etc ) with child daycare, dinghies and little day yachts provided great holidays for families. The Solent fleet provided training for the flotillas. IMHO the market niche they occupied with the villa holiday and or villa holiday /flotilla combination still exists and is crying out to be occupied.

A year or two back I would have heartily agreed - Neilson seemed to have had the market virtually to themselves (indeed they had taken over several Sunsail club sites) less some overlap with Mark Warner/Club Med and appeared to be doing ok out of it. However of late they seem to be struggling somewhat - dropping two resorts after brochures were printed this year. The refugee 'crisis' and general Turkish govt 'issues' in some of their prime operating areas undoubtedly hasn't helped.

 

[eddystone]

Anyone who writes utter rubbish like this should be taken into the car park and publically flogged, imho (metaphorically, of course).

Is this a product of dumbing down of higher education and the relatively recent introduction of a degree in business?

Lingua Franca of business school graduates I'm afraid, goes with the skill of knowing exactly when to bail out before the shit hits the fan following your inspirational re-engineering of the (ex) business

 

[Seven Spades]

I think it simply means that they dopn't see much growth potential. It is just what it is a business that is ticking along.