Leading Stories

WALKING ON WATER

Last year, Harry Heeley exchanged a successful career in pubs and restaurants for the challenge of running Sunsail Clubs, the market leader in sailing holidays. Was it a seamless transition? He tells us here.

Until then, my career had taken me to operations and general management positions within the UK hospitality industry, working with Whitbread, JD Wetherspoon and, most recently, a small independent restaurant operator chaired by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King of The Wolseley fame.

I have to say that my background is a little ‘unorthodox’ for someone working in hospitality. I have a degree in Ancient History and Latin from Durham University. But I’d always been involved in the trade as a teenager and student, loving the transparency of the business model and above all the interaction with the customers and colleague. Although these days I live in Wales – Cardiff -- with my fiancé, I spend most working weeks abroad or at our head office in Port Solent.

A family of businesses

Sunsail Clubs is the market leader in sailing holidays, carrying over 31,000 guests a year to stunning beach locations in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. The business provides guests with an exciting activity holiday with a sailing specialist – whether you’re a beginner wishing to learn or an expert wanting to refine your sailing skills, or if you just want to relax on a great beach or in one of the spa facilities.

Club Vass is the world’s leading windsurf holiday provider, taking guests to the best windsurf locations worldwide – including Venezuela, Egypt and Greece – and the business is focused on providing the best kit and tuition possible. Both Sunsail and Club Vass lease and run hotel operations, whilst also providing comprehensive on and off water activities.

Within the TUI Marine group there are 11 of the world’s leading marine leisure brands including Sunsail, Sunsail Flotillas, The Moorings and Le Boat. It’s a superb family of businesses to be a part of.

From hospitality to tour operating

The role of Operations Director for Sunsail Clubs offered the excitement of working internationally with a premium brand. It likewise promised plenty of self-development opportunities within the world’s largest travel company.

The move across sectors, from hospitality to tour operating, was also very appealing. It was the chance to learn about a new industry, and hopefully bring a fresh perspective and some new ideas to an established business. As a keen ‘weekend’ sailor, it was also a great opportunity for me to mix business with pleasure, hopefully in warmer waters than the UK has to offer!

This change of industry has certainly been rewarding. An obvious pleasure has been to see a fantastic improvement in the performance of the business over the last 18 months, with the profit and sales figures exceeding all the stretch targets we put in place at the beginning of this financial year. It has also been a great pleasure to work in a new sector with a highly energetic and passionate team – of all ages and experience – from the managing director down. There is clear passion within the business to be the best in terms of customer experience and business performance, creating a culture that encourages great performance, at a fast pace.

Spot the difference

In many ways the businesses are very similar to those I have been involved with before. Like the hospitality industry in general, what we do of course revolves around the people within the business – customer service excellence is the goal, leading to greater distribution, and higher profitability – whilst also focussing on developing the relationship with our core customer base, one in two of whom return to Sunsail every year!

Both hospitality and tour operating are wholly customer centric, and within the Clubs and Vass business there is also a clear drive to continually build on the reputation of the businesses so that customers insist on our product. This year the team have really tried to focus on maximising our revenue opportunities whilst also putting in a lot of work to develop our customer service excellence. This is how we can build a team that is commercially focused yet totally engaged with the customer.

For me, on a professional level the obvious big difference is the amount of travel I now get to do. This is a real change from previous UK-focused roles, and a fantastic opportunity to see parts of the world that I previously hadn’t visited. Where once my working week might have involved trips on the UK motorway network I now find myself catching a BA flight to work. Offices that overlooked UK towns have been replaced with those overlooking the Caribbean. A great part of my role is managing the relationship with our local partners and service providers in the differing geographies, which has been a really enjoyable cultural as well as business experience.

A bright future

What do I hope to achieve over the next three years? I would hope that we’re able to continue the growing success of the Sunsail and Vass businesses, and begin expanding them in terms of resort numbers in 2009. For myself, I enjoy the challenges of this new sector tremendously and also the opportunity to work within such a large international business, but one that allows a small business culture and autonomy within its companies.

TUI Travel is also a great business in terms of meritocracy and personal development, so I hope to continue my development with them, consolidate my growing skills base, and seize any opportunities presented to me in the future!