Ultimate Escapes Closes Fort Collins Branch

By: Destination Club News
Date: August 19, 2010

Ultimate Escapes, the world's second largest and only publicly-traded destination club, filed their 10-Q form earlier this month detailing the results of the second quarter of 2010. Included in the document was a snapshot of the club's revenues, membership growth, and other critical elements of the firm. With the economy not showing demonstrable signs of improvement and new membership sales less than anticipated, Ultimate Escapes stated that they would take "steps to increase cash flow in order to cover 2010 operational expenses" and would be "monitoring and reducing operating expenses." Today the club has begun work on the latter by closing the Fort Collins, Colorado branch of the firm and consolidating operations to Kansas City.

Originally the home of Private Escapes, the Fort Collins arm has included sales, operations, finance, IT, member services, and other divisions for a number of years. Following the acquisition by Ultimate Escapes, many of these departments have transitioned to Kansas City and the club's headquarters in Kissimmee, Florida.

With the Private Escapes acquisition still pending last year, we outlined the steps we postulated Ultimate Escapes would undertake once finalized, including the reduction of staff at the Colorado and/or Florida divisions. These steps have finally come to fruition.

This morning, a handful of workers began to box up items within the office to transport to Kansas City. According to the club, this should save Ultimate Escapes roughly $3 million per year.

"Given what the economy has done in the last year, Ultimate Escapes, like all companies, is looking at ways to be more efficient for less costs," said Chairman Richard Keith in a voice mail message with The Coloradoan.

Members of the club who had previously had travel planners based in Fort Collins have been contacted and introduced to their new Escape Planners for future club travel.

While the $3 million savings is significant, it is now up to CEO and President Jim Tousignant and the rest of the Ultimate Escapes team to continue to make fiscally wise decisions and to "increase cash flow" as the club's documents specified. We will continue to monitor the situation and look forward to hearing your comments. To voice your opinion, please feel free to contact us at contribute@destinationclubnews.com.