Everything about The Easygroup totally explained
The
EasyGroup, founded in 1998, is the holding company controlling the "easy" ventures, such as they are; it's privately owned by
Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Many of the companies follow the "easy" format of taking away the frills in something to make it cheaper overall, plus using the
yield management system of supply and demand. In the last few years the company has started to franchise the businesses to expand, and cut down costs. It is based in the Rotunda in
Camden Town,
London, although it's registered in
Jersey.
Some EasyGroup subsidiaries have been more successful than others - the most successful division being
EasyJet.
EasyGroup brands
EasyJet
EasyJet is a
low-cost airline operating in Europe since
10 November 1995. It was the first company owned by EasyGroup to use the "easy" prefix.
EasyInternetcafé
EasyInternetcafé (formerly EasyEverything) is Europe's largest chain of Internet cafés, launched in 1999.
EasyCar
In April 2000 the company set-up the
car rental company EasyRentacar (later renamed EasyCar), with the only rental car available being the
Mercedes-Benz A-Class. The car rental business, which suffered from financial losses and a reputation for poor service has since closed. The new EasyCar company now operates as an international car rental broker via the Internet. The business is profitable and operates in more than 2,400 locations in over 60 countries, selling a full fleet of vehicles, including Prestige Cars in the UK.
EasyMoney
On
21 August 2001, the
credit card company, EasyMoney was set up with Accucard (now part of
Lloyds TSB), which was expanded on
14 February 2005 with the announcement that unbundled car insurance products provided by
Zurich would be sold later in the year at EasyMoney insurance
(External Link
). In April 2006, EasyGroup linked with
Moneysupermarket.com to provide a financial product comparison website
(External Link). This coincided with the withdrawal of the EasyMoney credit card
(External Link).
EasyCinema
On
23 May 2003, the
cinema company, EasyCinema at
The Point, Milton Keynes was opened at a former
UCI site, offering screenings from 20p if booked well in advance. The cinema initially struggled as major distributors were not prepared to release new films to the company using the yield-management model.
First run films later became available, but at fixed prices. The cinema also relented on not serving
popcorn and drinks, which previously went unsold to save on staffing costs.
(External Link)
Towards the end of its life, the cinema site also housed an EasyInternetcafé and was a pick-up point for EasyPizza. However, following a dispute over unpaid rent with the landlord,
Odeon (External Link), which resulted in eviction, the EasyCinema closed in May 2006 and reopened as an Odeon cinema.
The closure of EasyCinema appears to have curtailed the desired expansion into London's West End.
(External Link)(External Link)
EasyCinema DVD Rental
10 March 2005 saw the commencement of EasyCinema
DVD Rental, first announced in November 2004. This is a partnership with
LoveFilm, the company operating rental services for several other retail brands. However, unlike many
online DVD rental services, there's no monthly subscription but the user purchases credits at £1.99 each (minimum purchase is 4 credits). One credit permits one DVD rental and a maximum of three DVDs can be rented at one time. For customers renting one disc per week the offering is competitive to the subscription services, which typically allow one rental at a time, charging around £7.97 to £9.99 per month.
EasyBus
EasyBus began operating on
30 July 2004. The company currently offers a low cost express minibus service between Luton and Stansted Airports to Central London. Journeys can be booked via the EasyBus website, or customers can purchase a more expensive walk-on fare.
Easy4Men
On
9 December 2004, the men's toiletries range Easy4Men was launched together with
Boots. Originally conceived to challenge
Gillette, the product line didn't include a razor
(External Link). After disappointing sales the partnership with Boots was dissolved in 2006
(External Link).
EasyPizza
A delivery-only pizza company launched in 2004.
EasyMusic
EasyMusic, in conjunction with Wippit, began operation on
22 December 2004, with copyrighted music downloads offered from 25p, although minimum transaction value is £1 and there are charges for using credit cards and SMS payment methods. A proposed
copyleft section of EasyMusic never materialised.
As of January 2008, easyMusic no longer sell download music, but sell CDs in conjunction with CD-WOW.COM. When purchasing a CD you're simpily diverted to the CD-WOW website and a discount is usually applied which various depending on purchase, most transactions cost around 15p.
EasyCruise
A no frills cruise ship targeting the 18-40 age-group, rather than the traditional retired market, was launched on Friday
6 May 2005. The vessel is known as
EasyCruiseOne
The service originally operated night-time departures between ports in
St. Tropez,
Cannes,
Nice,
Monaco,
Imperia,
Genoa and
Portofino but is expanding to new destination and schedule changes according to season. It is possible to join the ship at any port and stay for a minimum of two, to a maximum of fourteen nights. Prices vary according to cabin type and demand. In a departure from the model employed by
EasyJet it's possible to book via travel agents as well as direct through the EasyCruise website. Recently EasyCruise announced the winter departures, at
Barbados,
St Vincent,
Martinique,
The Grenadines,
Grenada and
St Lucia.
The EasyCruiseOne cabins offer a simple bed and bathroom: most don't have windows and use of a maid service during the stay will incur an additional charge. Stelios revealed that the initial idea of requiring customers to be responsible for all room cleaning or incur a penalty charge "didn't go down too well".
(External Link)
EasyCruise, based in
Liberia, is a wholly owned subsidiary of EasyGroup. The service is managed by V Ships of Monaco.
The launch and early days of EasyCruise have been tracked for a
Sky One programme.
Expansion of the EasyCruise fleet was announced in 2006
(External Link).
EasyMobile/ShimmerBright
EasyMobile was a
mobile virtual network operator, operating a
pay as you go service, which closed in 2006 following a string of negative publicity and the withdrawal of its principal backer,
TDC.
(External Link)
Rival mobile service,
Orange, attempted to sue EasyGroup as it claimed the use of the orange EasyMobile logo breached its trademark and could confuse customers
(External Link). EasyGroup challenged this assertion.
The EasyMobile operation was inspired by
Telmore, a Danish mobile virtual network operator, using the
TDC Mobil network.
EasyMobile chose
The Link to be its sole independent retailer in March 2006,
(External Link) adding UK electrical retailer Comet to its vendors in May 2006.
(External Link) In April 2005, it was announced EasyMobile would expand into the Netherlands by summer 2005 in partnership with
Telfort(External Link). Nine months after launch the operation ceased on
1 August 2006(External Link) and the EasyMobile.nl website would be transformed into a telecoms price-comparison engine in partnership with
Kelkoo. In September 2005 it was announced that the service would also launch in Germany in partnership with
T-Mobile (External Link). On
10 November 2006, Talkline Gmbh & Co. KG, a German subsidiary of TDC Mobile International, bought 100% of EasyMobile Germany and EasyMobile Germany was renamed
Callmobile. The MNVO Callmobile is still operated by Talkline.
On November the 10th 2006 the EasyGroup terminated the brand license for EasyMobile. All customers were offered transfers to fresh mobile or a PAC to join another network. The network closed on
13 December at midnight and the Easymobile.com website was transformed into a telecoms price-comparison engine. EasyMobile was temporarily called ShimmerBright in the UK before it was shut down permanently in February 2007 .
In
January,
2008 the EasyGroup launched a partnership with the Mobile
VoIP provider
Rebtel. With this service, users can make international calls for the cost of a local call from their regular mobile phone and carrier without additional software downloads, Internet connections or computers. The service leverages
VoIP technology to route the international leg of the call over the Internet passing the savings on to the user.
EasyHotel
EasyHotel is a "no frills super budget" hotel operator with hotels located in
Kensington,
Victoria, and
Earls Court, London as well as
Luton,
Basel,
Zurich and
Budapest. Locations for future openings in 2008 have been announced as
Paddington,
Heathrow and
Larnaca. Rooms contain a double bed, are
en-suite and one wall panel is orange in colour with corporate logos on the wall and doors. Toiletries (except soap/shampoo) are not supplied and the use of the TV and the housekeeping facility is at an additional charge. Reservations must be made online, with the price less expensive the further in advance one books. The rooms are small but vary in size and one must pay extra to have a room with a window or a larger room.
The EasyHotel website also acts as a booking engine for 20,000 other hotels worldwide through Octopus Travel.
Other businesses
- EasyValue - An internet shopping comparison site began trading in November 2000, first independently, using software from Autonomy, then later in partnership with Kelkoo, switching to Shopping.com following Yahoo's acquisition of Kelkoo.
- Easy.com - A free e-mail service began in November 2000. This site now also acts as the EasyGroup main portal
- EasyJobs – An employment search engine, a partnership with Monster.com, began operation on 11 December 2004.
- EasyWatch - A Swatch-style range of watches made by Zeon. On launching EasyWatch Stelios claimed to be filling the void left by the highly collectable Swatch brand. EasyWatches are typically orange and have a large EasyWatch logo prominently displayed, which watch collectors say makes them look like a free corporate giveaway rather than a desirable or collectable product. EasyWatch immediately managed to infringe a number of trademarks by giving its watches names like Portafino. Stelios claimed that no-one could confuse one of his watches with a genuine Portafino and expressed surprise that a company would take legal action for use of a registered trademark.
- EasyTelecom – Providing mobile phone comparisons powered by Kelkoo. Fills the gap left by EasyMobile.
- EasyVan – Like EasyCar, EasyVan has teamed up with an outside company (Northgate) to provide van rental across the UK
- EasyOffice – owned and operated by the EasyGroup, will open in Kensington High Street in London on 14 November 2007, and is already taking bookings.
Legal action
In 2005, EasyGroup threatened legal action against a Welsh business which had been trading as EasyMobile since 2003 despite being established some two years before the launch of Stelios' business EasyMobile.com
(External Link). In 2006 Karl Kahn a London businessman branding Stelios as a "rich bully" obtained a court order against Stelios to prevent him from interfering with his pizza business
(External Link). Karl Kahn was informed in 2004 that his EasyPizza.co.uk domain was infringing the rights of EasyGroup. Following an acrimonious build-up to the court date, Stelios then pulled out at the last minute, serving a Notice of Discontinuance and Mr Kahn succeeded in getting EasyGroup to sign a consent order covering his costs, estimated at £135,000, and agreeing not to interfere with his business or bring any further court action without the approval of the court. To date, EasyGroup has yet to pay the costs but this hasn't prevented dozens of companies being threatened by Stelios because the huge costs associated with defending a claim in the High Court have been extremely effective in forcing people to hand over their domains. EasyGroup claims that the owners of "easy" domains are "passing off" on its name. However, that legal argument is based on a selective reading of the law which would require the companies to also copy EasyGroup's well-known orange livery and lower-case/upper-case Cooper Black typography, and to make out they're in some way associated with EasyGroup. That isn't the case with the majority of "easy" domain name owners.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Easygroup'.
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