Uniglobe Revamp Includes Better Tech Support

<I>Vancouver</I> - Uniglobe Travel's revamping and centralizing of its U.S. franchise organization is aimed at beefing up training and technology support for member agencies, in response to the changing demands of the travel business.

These moves will position Uniglobe to be more attractive to potential franchisees, said said company chairman and CEO U. Gary Charlwood, who recently became chairman of the International Franchise Association-an organization that in 1991 named him Entrepreneur of the Year.

Uniglobe will replace its 12 U.S. administrative regions with two divisions-the Eastern Division, to be located in Washington, D.C., and the Western Division in Los Angeles-ending a nearly 20-year-old tradition at the company that relied on local oversight of the franchise system. Uniglobe International will be the controlling and majority owner of the new company, while the former regional owners will share in a minority interest. However, 11 field offices will provide local support services, largely in training.

The change, which is effective May 1 with the formal creation of Uniglobe Travel (USA) LLC, means that the 875 company franchise locations in the United States will benefit from redirected resources that increasingly were being poured into duplicate administrative centers nationwide, Charlwood said.

"We had 12 of everything, and we saw no benefit to the franchisees of all that," he said. "They wanted direction in the running of their businesses. Where they really benefit is support from more people, so we redeployed our assets to spend more on agency development."

Each of the two divisions has two departments, one devoted to contract licensing and one to agency development. Within the agency development section, the staff is directed to focus on three areas: supporting new agencies that are just getting into the travel agency business, working with existing agencies that want to grow to the next economic level, and sales and marketing.

"We had people doing these functions before," Charlwood explained, "but we had fewer of them, and they had other responsibilities as well. Now with the centralization, we have more people working on these functions, and the money saved is going into aid for franchise holders' main needs." For example, Charlwood said, Uniglobe has beefed up its technology support department threefold.

The need to offer advanced training in technology was amplified by the airline industry's decision in 1995 to cap domestic commissions, Charlwood noted.

Coupled with the decision to overhaul its U.S. operations was Uniglobe's launch into the online sale of travel through its subsidiary, Uniglobe Travel Online. The company, which is run by Charlwood's son, Martin, offers Internet surfers direct booking ability, discount travel packages and multimedia presentations of destinations

Uniglobe's reorganization plan was developed with input from franchisees. "This is a blueprint that wasn't dictated from above," Charlwood said.

President and COO of the Eastern Division is Bob Lickman, who will handle all agencies east of the Mississippi. Lickman is the former head of the Capital Cities Group of three of the former Uniglobe regions. Heading the Western Division is Jay Risher, former head of three Uniglobe regions along the Pacific Coast.

Charlwood has high hopes for Uniglobe Travel Online, which was launched Oct. 8, 1996, went public on the Vancouver stock exchange and will eventually be listed on U.S. exchanges. Uniglobe holds a 3 percent share of the total travel market, "and we wanted to go after the other 97 percent," Charlwood said. He said the usage numbers for the service are "wonderful."

The Internet user is a "low-touch" person who doesn't require personal help in making travel arrangements, Charlwood said, so the UTO product isn't cutting into franchise holders' sales. "These users don't want to go through middle people, and they would go elsewhere if we didn't have online service," he said.

Charlwood said the company also is seeking to purchase a competitor that is entrenched in the cruise business to even out its agency mix of corporate to leisure sales, which now stands at 70 percent corporate and 30 percent leisure. "Since our inception, we said we would move to a 50-50 mix," he said. "That would boost us along. But it has to be a good fit. We aren't in a rush.