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REWARDSCORP faced a slight challenge when Air Australia went bust and passengers were stranded, but CEO Randall Deer (pictured) took it in his stride.
“We had customers affected, but it was a small number overall. We went to every length we could to ensure they were looked after and we got them all home,” says Deer.
“It wasn’t great for us, but we are in the travel industry and sometimes things like this happen. We just have to move fast to look after all of our customers and give them our support. It is what this industry is all about and we deal with things like this as they come up.”
The 2011 Gold Coast Young Entrepreneur of the Year is confident about his company’s growth potential.
“We will grow our market share this year and the year after. From January to January, we have doubled turnover. If one of our brands grow, they all grow. I think we can do really big numbers this year and the year after,” says Deer.
“The way we will keep growing is we will keep finding products the customer doesn’t have access to and doesn’t know they want until they see it. We’re just going to keep going hard and creating better travel deals for our customers.”
RewardsCorp launched Getaways Limited in October 2011, which followed Group Buying Escapes in May. But it’s My Holiday Centre that has proved success for RewardsCorp since its foundation in 2009.
My Holiday Centre doesn’t bring any overseas tourists into Australia and 40 per cent of its customers travel overseas.
There are a number of ‘My’ brands, including My Queensland, My Bali, My Fiji, My Thailand and My Malaysia with My USA on the horizon.
“We keep finding niche areas to focus on and present new products to the travel industry. We are not entering a space that is already crowded. We don’t compete with anybody, we don’t want to compete,” says Deer.
Deer launched the initial business by tailoring travel packages for organisations to promote as prizes, or rewards to members. He first hatched the concept for big multinationals while working full-time as chief financial officer at BreakFree Holidays.
RewardsCorp started six years ago and My Holidays Centre three years after.
"We found a niche in the travel-based promotions for clients like Retravision and Hungry Jacks," says Deer.
RewardsCorp has also provided services to Optus, L.J. Hooker Real Estate, Beaurepaires, Forty Winks, Accor Hotels, Starwood Hotels, Air Pacific, Virgin Australia, Thai Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and the Mantra Group.
"We built a travel company brand by promoting offers we had designed for different companies for travel benefits for their customers," explains Deer.
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