The Great People Who Make Group Travel Fun

Red7 is an award-winning group travel expert. It is expanding its market share with an evolving offer that is always ahead of the curve. But, behind the rising sales figures, is a dedicated team of professionals who are credited with the brand’s unwavering success. We meet one of them – Managing Director Sarah Chapman.

Independent, successful and growing – Red7 is the group travel agency based in Brighton but taking people all over the place. Founded by entrepreneur Ian Lucas in 1996, it is the go-to travel specialist for stag, hen, group and sport breaks. It operates across the UK, Europe and USA.

The business is currently focussing on continued growth, but is keen to never lose sight of what makes it special – its people.

In this feature, we meet Managing Director Sarah Chapman. She was Ian’s first employee and has now been with the business for over two decades. She took a short break to grow her family of three kids with husband, Warren, who was once one of Red7’s top sales people.

Having worked in operations, finance, products and product development, she is uniquely placed to lead the business forward as Ian diverts his attention elsewhere.

Sarah stepped back into the business in 2018 and took on the ‘top job’ in February 2019.

Meanwhile, Ian has relocated to Marbella to grow that side of the business ‘in resort’ as well as nurturing his other business interests, which include a media company and a pub!

Sarah juggles a demanding role with looking after a young family, working both from Red7’s North Laine office and from home, with a solid management team empowered to ‘get on with things’.

Good leadership has ensured Red7 is a nimble and efficient travel business with a global reach, taking an ever creative approach to marketing a niche product which is, essentially, selling fun.

Sarah says: “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we’re a focussed and energetic brand looking forward to decades of continued success!”

We asked Sarah to tell us more about the business.

Who are your customers?

Picture it: your best mate is engaged, how exciting. Problem is, he / she has invited you to be their Best Man or Chief Bridesmaid. What an honour, you can’t possibly say no. But, how many people have had to organise a group holiday for 10, 20 or even 30 strangers working on a budget?

Our customers are people who have been handed this challenge and don’t know where to start. We take the hassle out of organising a group holiday. We have an online platform for group members to manage their own booking and we give our customers monthly instalment payment plans to help them budget.

When you think about growing or new markets, where do you see Red7 going?

Group travel is at our core, we’ll never move away from that; hens, stags, milestone birthdays, sports tours, even divorce parties (yes, they’re a thing!).

What we’re always look to do is stay ahead of the competition, we’re agile and experienced enough to spot, create and exploit trends.

We were the first agency to create professionally organised stag dos and hen weekends. We were the first to ride the TOWIE wave – our Essex and Marbella weekends went through the roof.

We had established such tight supplier relationships in Essex that almost all of the group travel capacity in Essex was committed to Red7.

We’re growing our ‘healthy hens’ options (yoga by day, party at night) and sports travel has legs.

The business was ground-breaking when it launched, what sets it apart today?

Our people. We have true travel experts. Our sales team is second to none in group travel. That experience gives us an unbeatable edge over our competitors.

We also have very long, strong direct relationships with our suppliers – that’s not something you can create overnight. It gives us a strong trading foundation in the key destinations and the competitive edge we need to continue growing, even after two decades!

Group holidays are becoming more popular. What types of groups can you help?

We help anyone and everyone – basically, if you’re a group of six or more travelling in UK or Europe (and, in 2020, areas of the USA) Red7 can assist.

What is the company culture at Red7?

It’s a fun company – we’re selling fun after all.

We really are just one big, happy team; everyone is focussed on creating the best holiday and making sure it’s delivered perfectly.

We’re all creative-types. We love going on the road to see the product, especially the warmer, party destinations!

The sales floor is the heart of the business – we have music playing all day. There’s a real buzz, and we’re blessed with a large sun trap balcony where you’ll often find us partying after a busy sales day.

It’s always been important that Red7 is a ‘nice place to work’. Our staff get breakfast and lunch free every day, and we try to send everyone on fam trips at least twice a year.

What do you, as MD of Red7, love about the business?

Again, without sounding repetitive, the people! They’re such a lovely bunch of people, and they work really hard to make the company a success.

People who’ve left stay in touch, and sometimes come back, and for the long-timers Red7 is now part of their DNA!

Personally, I’ve enjoyed a career of over two decades with this company so I must love it!

Ahead of the curve

Red7 keeps ahead of the curve. Sarah says that is important.

It has great relationships with suppliers and, in larger destinations like Marbella and Portugal, it has Red7 Resort Managers to ensure everything runs smoothly.

“Our buying power means that, very often, a trip booked through us is cheaper than ‘doing it yourself’, and we have the destination knowledge and expertise to create the perfect itineraries – our guests can even make dinner reservations and pre-pay for everything,” said Sarah.

“We make group travel (which is a bit of a headache for most people) really easy! We have tried-and-tested all the activities we sell, and our sales team regularly travel across the UK and Europe experiencing first hand the holidays they sell.

“We have recently branched out into youth and adult football tournaments, which is growing rapidly.”

Working around obstacles

Red7 has survived recessions, disasters (9/11 was a very tricky time for tourism) and mainstream travel businesses moving into its niche market. But, with the demand for professionally organised group travel in a healthy state, it is confident that sustained growth is realistic and achievable.

“We started out selling mostly stags in the UK, now we are mostly stags overseas – almost 40 per cent of our business is overseas stags. One of the main impacts on this shift to overseas (60 per cent of all travel is to overseas destinations) is that the lead time is much longer – we’re taking bookings for 2021 and 2022 now,” Sarah explained.

“Partly, this is because we offer interest-free monthly payment plans, so a luxury villa hen party in Marbella is within reach. Almost 50 per cent of our sales are for travel over one year in the future.

“Another benefit of the instalment plan is that the unaffordable becomes affordable – booked 12 to 18 months in advance, a top-notch stag do abroad could cost less than £20 per month.

Average spends

Sarah says the average spend has increased significantly over time . “Ten years ago an average stag party was worth £190 per person, now it’s £218, and hens have increased from £127 per person to £182,” she said.

“This is driven by the increase in overseas holidays. It’s worth noting that often a couple with have FOUR holidays between them – two stags and two hens. One big one, typically abroad, and a smaller one more local to home, with a meal, night out and one-night hotel stay.

“We’ve also seen a big push towards villas and party houses, which means that now the entertainment comes to you (topless cocktail waiter, your own private pool party with DJ and BBQ chef).

Back to the beginning

Red7’s roots date back to the late 1990s. It was the first company in the UK to market pre-arranged stag and hen parties. The idea came to founder and CEO, Ian Lucas, after a really awful stag do in London. Nowhere would accept a group of ‘stags’ – the group ended up drinking cans of beer, walking and round Covent Garden.

When he got back home, Ian approached local bars, clubs and restaurants in need of business and started to put together pre-packaged hen and stag parties.

Sarah says: “He ensured the groups were welcomed into restaurants and bars and treated the same as any other client.

“When the first budget airlines launched, we branched out into organising overseas hens and stags and we have helped over a million clients organise their pre-wedding celebrations.

“The early challenge was to persuade a bank that Red7 was a real business. Often, Ian was told ‘there’s a reason no one else is doing this…’ The next challenge was to find a hotel, a nightclub and a restaurant that would accept groups of guys. In those days, it was simply not acceptable.

“The third challenge was to get door staff at nightclubs to welcome groups of guys (and girls), rather than challenge them.

“Fast forward 23 years and now door staff are hosts and most hospitality businesses accept (and need) groups. Groups are good business – so we broke down a lot of barriers.

“Very quickly, we were bringing so many hen parties to Brighton that we hired the Old Market and put on our own male strip shows – complete with fish and chip suppers from bankers!”

In those pioneering days, Red7 established a massive network of small, local businesses operating in the same field.

Sarah says: “These affiliates ‘white labelled’ Red7 packages and paid a commission. It helped the company gain traction and operate across the whole of the UK. Many of these affiliates did so well they are now independent competitors keeping Red7 on its toes!”

Marketing and SEO

Unlike many businesses founded in the 1990s, Red7 understood very early on the importance of Google rankings and effective PPC marketing.

Sarah points out: “We invest heavily in SEO to maintain our high organic rankings on over 200 keywords, as well as heavy investment in GoogleAds to generate valuable sales leads with high buying-intention.

“With an established and loyal sales team – 50 per cent have been with the firm for two years or more – the business is seeing a decrease in the cost per enquiry, despite heavy competition.

“With a surge of proposals around Christmas, New Year and St Valentine’s Day, we rely on GoogleAds to drive enquiries in quieter, shoulder months.

“Using GoogleAds tactically to smooth out our trading year is important as it means our full time permanent sales team are kept busy all year round, which means it’s easier to retain them.”

With great products, great people and a commitment to delivering group travel customers really want, Red7 is, quite rightly, at the very top of its game.

Find out more:

Website: https://www.redsevenleisure.co.uk

Telephone: 01273 872200

Twitter: @Red7Leisure

Instagram: red7leisure