Luck, faith and support on journey to travel success
They had no customers, six staff to pay, no money and ‘‘no idea’’, award-winning Southland travel agent Tony Laker says.
But he and wife Tracey had faith, and 20 years later that selfbelief has paid off, with their agency, House of Travel Lakers, showing a $28 million turnover and employing 22 staff in its Invercargill and Gore branches.
‘‘As I understand it, the average-sized travel agency in New Zealand has six staff, so our Invercargill office is definitely one of the larger ones nationwide,’’ Tony Laker said.
The business won the 2019 Best Retail Travel Agency award ahead of 300 agencies nationwide, at the New Zealand Travel Industry Awards. Laker winning the Lifetime Industry Achievement Award.
Laker, 54, said he could still not quite believe it, or the ride he’d had in two decades in business.
‘‘We had no money, no customers, and in my case no idea.
‘‘At the time [when they set up] there were already 12 travel agents, so Invercargill was overpopulated. Most people thought it odd that we would want to be the lucky number 13.’’
Not only was there a travel agent glut, but airlines were dropping the commission levels they paid to agents, and Air NZ had not long launched its online booking website.
However, experience had taught them the value of personalised customer service.
‘‘We also knew that we had to be more proactive about marketing ourselves, that when a Southlander woke up in the morning and wanted to book a holiday that their first thought would be Lakers.’’
As a result, they created several divisions including group and escorted travel – they do 12 tours a year – plus sports, school or special interest group travel, along with conference and event organising.
Most of their business is Southland-based.
Laker is prominent in the community and a supporter of Hospice Southland, donating everything he receives from his numerous speaking engagements.
Born in Bluff, he thought he would become a fisherman like his father.
‘‘I was supposed to be one as well but we moved to Invercargill when I was 10 years old, so I wasn’t going to be a fisherman.’’
When he left school – the former Cargill High School – he went to work for Trustbank Southland. His godmother was on the board.
‘‘The bank manager gave me the job and told me not to ‘mess it up for your godmother’.’’
He didn’t then, but had often done so since, he said.
‘‘The key is what you do to fix the mess, and what you learn from it.’’
He paid tribute to his wife Tracey.
‘‘I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today in business or life without her. I always tell people, Tracey does all the things that I’m hopeless at, which means she’s extremely busy.’’
The Lakers have two children, Meg, 18 and Flynn, 16.
‘‘Raising the children and building the business has been a busy time no doubt, especially as Flynn has Down syndrome, but we have always placed huge emphasis on balance. A great example of that is for the last 16 years [since Flynn was born], I am home from work every night at 5pm. I never work in the office late.’’
He was proud of what they had built, and that it was a solely Southland business.
Susie Bernard is joint owner of the Gore branch with a staff of four. The Invercargill branch employs 18 people.
There are no plans to open branches elsewhere in New Zealand.
‘‘We don’t need to open another one. We’ll just make the ones we’ve got bigger and better,’’ Laker said.