Cruise - HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES sold by ALL LEISURE Group - updated

ALL LEISURE Group seems to be in severe troubles as it has sold HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES and cancelled cruises with MINERVA and VOYAGER. It is said to be for “operational reasons”. ALL LEISURE has gone bust this afternoon, January 4th 2017, as Grant Thornten stated.

by Earl of Cruise

HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES, the Queen’s favourite cruise line, was sold to a group of well-known travel professionals for an undisclosed price around a month ago. ABTA included HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES Ltd in a list of new members circulated on January 4th.

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS of HEBRIDEAN SILAND CRUISES - photo © John Kennedy, courtesy HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES / ALL LEISURE

Further it has emerged, that the sailings of SWAN HELLENIC and VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY have been cancelled. MINERVA’s “Gateway to the Atlantic Isles”, which should have started January 3rd 2017, and VOYAGES of DISCOVERY’s VOYAGER, ex Alexander von Humboldt, “Riches of the Orient”, which should have started today, January 4th 2017.

top and below: HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS of HEBRIDEAN SILAND CRUISES passenger decks - courtesy HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES / ALL LEISURE

all interior pictures below courtesy HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES / ALL LEISURE

Style and Service concept is British and aiming for UK tourist primarily

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS TIREE LOUNGE

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS TIREE LOUNGE

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Promenade

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Restaurant

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Single Cabin

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Suite Bedroom

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Suite Bedroom

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Suite Living Room

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Cabin

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS Reataurant

HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES´s cruise Ship HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS, 49 passengers, 38 crew. 71 m, 1988, ex COLUMBA, 1964, of DAVID MACBRAYNE Ltd´s CALEDONIAN MACBRAYNE, was sold in December 2015 for £ 2,9 million and in June 2017 ALL LEISURE de-listed from the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. The operator HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES - the one ship luxury ocean cruise company which had chartered its single vessel several times to HM Queen Elizabeth II. is now owned by a group of investors led by ALL LEISURE Group chairman, Roger Allard. E.g. from July 21st to 29th 2006, HM Queen Elizabeth II. chartered HABRIDEAN PRINCESS for a `family holiday´ around the Scotish Islands to mark her 80th birthday, as she longer could use the former Royal Yacht hms BRITANNIA.

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS of HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES - Source: Wikipedia

Besides Mr. Allrad are other investors as ex-UNIJET boss Nigel Jenkins, travel industry accountant Chris Photi and current Hebridean managing director Ken Charleson. Further shareholders in the new business include former TUI specialist division managing director John Wimbleton, ex-PANORAMA boss and ABTA president Justin Fleming and the wives of former Thomson Holidays boss Peter Rothwell and First Choice Holidays chief Dermot Blastland, among others.

Some, but not all of these shareholders, were behind the acquisition of the HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS vessel under the company name HP Shipping Limited in 2015.

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS is mainly operated on cruises from Oban - to the Inner and Outer Hebridies on Scotland´s west coast. The islands visited are Iona, Rhum, Muck, Eigg, Lewis, Sky, Staffa and Orkney. HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS has also been operated on cruises around England, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Maldives, India and Sri Lanka.

In late August 2016, ALL LEISURE Group sold its Egypt specialist operator DISCOVER EGYPT, which offers Nile cruises, to its own management team. DISCOVER EGYPT is now part of PLATINUM HOLIDAYS, established in May 2016, and includes Roger Allard and ALL LEISURE HOLLIDAYS’ commercial director Philip Breckner and director David Wiles.

MINERVA of SWAN HELENIC, after refurbishing and rebuilding - courtesy SWAN HELENIC / ALLL LEISURE

sailed in charter for some time (part year) for PHOENIX SEEREISEN as ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT

In a further development it has also emerged that other ALL LEISURE brands JUST YOU and TRAVELSPHERE are now operating under the G ADVENTURES Atol licence, suggesting they have also been sold. Neither ALL LEISURE nor G ADVENTURES have confirmed whether the brands have been sold, but the websites of JUST YOU and TRAVELSPHERE confirm holidays are operating under G ADVENTURES’ licence.

VOYAGER of VOYAGES of DISCOVERY - courtesy VOYAGES of DISCOVERY / ALL LEISURE

was previously the  ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT of PHOENIX SEEREISEN

Besides ALL LEISURE left the stock market last year after months of tough trading conditions. Its turnover for the year to October 2015 was £127.3 million, down from £138.9 miillion a year earlier, but the group did make a £500,000 profit compared with a £7.5 million loss in 2015 and a £13.2 million loss in 2014.

Taking a look back at their routings it will be clear why - during the past years ALL LEISURE and VOYAGES of DISCOVERY offered cruises in destinations with severe political and military turbulences.

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS in the Inner Hebridies - courtesy HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES / ALL LEISURE

Unconfirmed reports say that potential buyers inspected the VOYAGER during a recent dry-docking at Keppel shipyard in Singapore. Meanwhile, representatives of Sea Chefs, a German Hotel Management and Crewing Agency, based in tax heaven Cyprus, who operate the vessel’s hotel services and crewing, is said to have flown in from Germany to address crew members.

A statement on the line’s website says: "Due to operational reasons, Voyages of Discovery regrets to inform its passengers that the ‘Riches of the Orient’ cruise, due to start in Malaysia on 4th January 2017, has been cancelled. Voyages of Discovery apologises to all of its passengers who were due to sail on this cruise."

Agents who had customers booked on the cancelled sailings, plus bookings on future sailings, said they had been left in the dark by All Leisure.

Phil Nuttall, managing director of The Cruise Village, said: "We don’t know what is going on. We don’t know what is happening and what will happen with future bookings. We are totally in the dark and they have said they can’t tell us anything until tomorrow"

Dealing this way with travel agents and customers at least does no good for the future reputation, if there will be a future for ALL LEISURE.

"All we know is what we have been told by them; that the cruises have been cancelled; and what has been covered in the press. We had quite a few customers due to go on the cruises, most of them single and older so it’s a big deal for their holiday to be cancelled. It was totally out of the blue, we don’t know what is happening with refunds but I am sure the customers’ money will be protected."

HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS of

Meanwhile, new company secretary of HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES Ltd, Chris Photi, said: "ALL LEISURE is disposing of a number of assets as it looks to streamline the group. HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES is a nice, stable, profitable and well-established business with a loyal client customer following of high net-worth individuals."(HNWI).

He said the business, which sells both direct to consumers and through the trade, had been sold as a ‘going concern’ and reassured agents that all forward bookings would be honoured and clients looked after.

"Nothing will change at all. The company is ABTA and Atol-bonded and all customers are going to be cared for and will get the holidays that they have booked."

HEBRIDEAN ISLAND CRUISES is catering the real upscaled market (HNWI´s) and is profitable, but combining such a product and small single ship offer, with even if upscaled soft expedition Me-Too product, and sticking to long to the wrong destinations is not covering up the losses produced in the Me-Too branches. Even if the brands had been seperated from each other, there is a certain mix in the perception by the customers. If you go high-end luxury you have to stay with.
There can´t be blamed the unions for the failiure of SWAN HELENIC or VOAYAGES of DISCOVERY, but only the directors for their wrong management based on inflexibility.

Latest update:

The former Chairman of the failed All Leisure Group, Roger Allard, has apologised for its failure. He stated that:

Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery dealt in cruises for more mature guests to cultural and iconic destinations like the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and the Black Sea where there are lots of sights.

But increasingly over the last few years, since the Arab Spring, it has been increasingly difficult to operate to these areas, either because of Foreign Office advice or a dampening of demand from consumers to travel to certain areas where we specialised.

But then Brexit happened. The impact of that was on currency which was another blow. It was the exchange rate that became the issue for us. They raised prices with their tour operators but could not on their cruise operations. Furthermore, so much with cruise is paid for in foreign currency – leases, crew, fuel and some maintenance is all paid in dollars, while food, and port fees are often paid in Euros.

In the last 18 months, the Pound has dropped 20% against the Dollar and 14% against the Euro, so it was a truly unfortunate perfect storm. There’s a limit to what you can do when all these world events are slowly chiselling away at you. 

So it appears that their main issues were:

1. increasingly mature customer base and lack of ability to widen appeal to a younger demographic due to very traditional product.

2. Specialist cruise areas served were in North Africa, Middle East and Black Sea which are now conflict areas and too dangerous.

3. BREXIT caused cash flow issues. 

4. Cruise operations had been significantly loss making for several years and were surviving on subsidies from tour operations.

Grant Thornton the administrators now will be selling various assets of All Leisure – including the freehold property in Market Harborough, Voyages of Discovery’s Voyager vessel, and other assets including brand names and databases. Roger Allard had been looking to step back from things and take a more back seat role for some time. He is now the chairman of Hebridean Island Cruises Ltd and has various other interests in leisure businesses both in and outside of travel. 

Hebridean Island Cruises has been rescued and will continue under its new ownership by this group of investors. It was the only profitable cruise operation in All Leisure due to its royal warrant.

Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery are to be liquidated with immediate effect. They were heavily loss making for several years and were subsidised by the tour agencies. The tour agencies have been sold to G Adventures. 

 

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