Suzanne Horner, chief executive of Gray Dawes Group and chair of the Business Travel Association, said staff had been kept fully informed during the pandemic about the seriousness of the situation.
She told The Travel Convention there was a “taboo” about talking about profitability. “We should be talking about profits," said Horner.
She described how her company had boasted sales of almost £200 million and a near £10 million profit pre-Covid. “We went from £200 million to £12 million top line. We had 250 staff in eight offices and a cost base that was just out of control. We would never have looked at that cost base before, because we were flying high.”
Weekly staff updates became a vital part of the pandemic strategy, she said. “The numbers are shared; people know when we have done well and they know when they have to do better.”
She added Gray Dawes had signed £30 million in new business in the last four months but added this was “not transacting” yet.
However, she said last week’s turnover had reached £1.7 million, half of what it was in the same week in 2019 and said August and September this year had been better than in 2019, with profits made. October was heading in the same direction.
She said TMCs should look at “the phenomenal things the leisure industry does” and said the gap between the two sectors “has been too big for too long”. “Retail is the buzzword in the corporate industry and you have been retailers for years,” she said.
Horner also praised the efforts of the BTA and Advantage during the pandemic, saying BTA chief executive Clive Wratten “was definitely running the show from a PR point of view”, as was Advantage’s Julia Lo Bue-Said on the leisure side.
