Will Waggott and Richard Carrick join Travel Solutions Network board
James ChappleIndustry veterans Will Waggott and Richard Carrick have joined the board of newly-established homeworking operation, Travel Solutions Network (TSN).
Ex-Tui Group finance director Waggott and former MyTravel chief executive Carrick have become shareholders in the firm and will serve as non-executive directors. TSN was launched last week by Garry and Lindsey Winterburn with backing from Steve Endacott, who will chair the company’s board.
It’s aim is to tempt back established travel professionals who may have left the industry owing to the pandemic and use their experience to convert two years of pent-up demand as the industry seeks to bounce back from the Covid crisis.
TSN will initially aim to provide staffing for an overflow call centre service to help firms that are struggling to keep up with demand to process bookings. At the same time, homeworkers will be supported to build their own client bases with provision of a bookable site and video networking tools.
The business will also work with local or regional clusters of homeworkers to create shop hubs to work from, with the aim of establishing the brand on the high street.
Waggott will oversee M&A activity at TSN, and assist chief executive Garry Winterburn with further fundraising efforts to support the brand’s expansion plans. Carrick, meanwhile, will develop TSN’s marketing proposition and distribution channels to allow homeworkers to set up local and national customer networks.
Endacott, Waggott and Carrick all previously worked together at Airtours, which later became MyTravel before it was eventually acquired by Thomas Cook.
"Having grown up with Will and Richard during our formative years as supposedly bright young things during heydays of Airtours, we have great respect for each other’s complimentary skills and I believe TSN will massively benefit from having such industry experts as part of the team driving the growth of TSN’s homeworking network," said Endacott.
Carrick said: “All homeworkers need to harvest their personal ’black book’ of local contracts to develop their initial clientele base. However, many have destination expertise that TSN can market centrally on a national basis, with the homeworkers using our cutting-edge video conferencing tools to establish a personalised relationship when presenting back holiday options. It’s vital homeworking tools are modernised, and I believe TSN have come up with a winning platform.”
Waggott said he believed the homeworking sector was prime for "massive expansion". "Combining this with a cost-saving outsourcing partnership play is a real winner in a marketplace where UK travel businesses will need the ability to expand fast and stay nimble on their feet in case any further Covid-19 disruption occurs.”
Winterburn added: “I feel like we have put together the non-executive dream team who bring specific industry experience and contacts, but also have a wealth of general business experience we can call upon in our rapid growth journey.
"We’ve already had a flood of applicants expressing interest and asking for more information, which I think will now increase further as people see the scale of our plans.”
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