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Landround ready to spread wings

TRAVEL promotions firm Landround is flying high. The AIM-listed Cheshire company has bounced back from its post-September 11 nadir, when the shares sunk to 57p and the business issued two profit warnings in successive months.

It is thriving once more. The shares have rocketed to 430p and profits have risen from £159,000 in 2001 to more than £2m last year.

Market analysts believe there is plenty more good news to come. They are forecasting turnover of £10.5m and pre-tax profits of £2.38m this year.

Landround, based in The Quadrant, Sealand Road, Chester, and an office in Ireland, runs travel voucher offers and a Buy & Fly! scheme which is a rival to Air Miles.

Much of the credit for its revival is put down to chief executive David Lyne. He was appointed in January 2002 after a spell as business development director.

The 39-year-old, who is married with one son and another child due in April, worked as a consultant to Landround in its early days and joined full-time in 1997, when the business was floated at 80p a share.

David got to know founder and chairman Michael Crompton while working at American Airlines' package holidays business in London. David said: "Mike came to see us about whether Landround could work with us on promotions."

David's involvement in the travel industry began during a gap year before he started at Oxford University. He said: "I spent half of it in a solicitors' office, which put me off being a lawyer.

"Then I got a job with Schools Abroad at a Swiss ski resort, organising the bus service from the hotels to the slopes for children on their trips."

After he graduated in history, he joined Schools Abroad full-time before moving to American Airlines. From there, he joined EF, a Swedish outfit which runs language schools all over the world.

"It was the worst decision I've ever made - I hated every minute of it. I spent nine months with them before I left to become a consultant.

"I knew there would be a few people who would use my services and did things such as writing a brochure for Kuoni's wine holidays.

"I did some work for Mike and signed up five or six partners before joining full-time."

Landround continued to progress, signing more partners for its promotions, before disaster struck in 2001.

"The shares went to 400p in early 2001 but then came September 11. From that date until the end of our financial year at the end of the month, we didn't do a single piece of new business.

"We also took our eye off the ball when we launched Buy & Fly! and stopped selling our core product - vouchers.

"We made the mistake of thinking we could sell it in the same way, using the same people. Despite those factors, we still made a profit of £150,000."

In 2002, Landround increased its profits to £860,000 and enjoyed a record year in 2003, during which David's salary soared from £49,000 to £311,000.

Its recovery led to Landround being named by Forbes business magazine as one of the top 200 companies to follow outside the US with a turnover of less than $1bn - a proud moment which produced smiles as wide as a Cheshire Cat's at HQ.

None was wider than chairman and founder Michael, who owns 16 per cent of the shares. He has more than 25 years' experience in the travel promotions industry, although is first business was a frozen food shop in Northwich.

He moved into the travel sector when he started hotel magazines, and formed Landround in 1992.

The married father-of-two, who lives in Tarporley, Cheshire, decided to float the business in 1997 to boost its credibility and raise its profile.

Two original directors, Tina Mills, Jan Wilcock are still with the company. The first employee, Carol Mealyer, who joined as a clerk, is director of travel.

The core business is travel voucher promotions. For example, Virgin issued a discount voucher to every customer who spent £50 or more at its megastores, while McDonald's gave away a £10 Thomson holiday voucher for every Happy Meal bought at its restaurants.

Landround receives fees from the retailers which issue vouchers, and earns commission on bookings, as its in-house travel agency has to be used by consumers. The agency makes money providing extra services, organising accommodation, insurance and call hire.

Vouchers are big business - the UK market alone is reckoned to be worth more than £1.5bn a year.

Buy & Fly! was launched in 2000 and is similar to the Air Miles programme. Consumers can collect points by buying Domino's pizzas, Odeon cinema tickets, Nikon cameras, OK! Magazine and making other purchases.

The scheme is also used to incentivise customers and staff. Britvic Soft Drinks began issuing points as a tonic to Londis shopkeepers if they drove sales of Robinsons products.

Scottish Courage gave them to publicans in return for improving sales of its beers and some accumulated enough points to take family holidays in the Caribbean, Florida and Australia.

Fifty thousand people have redeemed their Buy & Fly! points since 2000 for air travel, hotel or holiday park stays, ferry crossings, cruises and camping breaks.

Landround has invested £200,000 to enable consumers to collect points electronically rather than in paper form.

In addition, David says the longer-term success of Buy & Fly! depends on having a major supermarket chain, credit card company or petrol retailer as a partner. Air Miles has Tesco, NatWest and Shell.

Landround expects to clinch a deal in one of the three areas by the end of this month. That could mean the firm's turnover from Buy & Fly! exceeds its vouchers business by next year.

David said: "We have a long term ambition to take Buy & Fly! to other countries. We are on the verge of something big."

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