The brothers who turned start-up Heidi into certainly one of Britain’s largest ski vacation companies: This is Money podcast
With the Winter Olympics in full flow, Simon Lambert interviews Marcus and Alexander Blunt, the brothers behind ski holiday firm Heidi, for this bonus This is Money podcast episode.
They discuss how they turned a start-up into the UK’s second biggest ski package holiday company in eight years – and survived the pandemic’s threat to the business.
Marcus and Alexander tell Simon the story of making their business idea a reality, how they grew Heidi, the lessons they have learnt along the way, and share their tips for other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Listen to the episode on the podcast player below or at the This is Money Podcast channels on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
Eight years ago, brothers Marcus and Alexander Blunt were passionate skiers frustrated by the difficulty of trying to organise the mountain holidays that they and their friends really wanted.
Deciding on a ski resort, sorting flights, accommodation, transfers and getting people from different parts of the country to the right place at the right time, had Marcus building complicated spreadsheets to work things out.
After one mammoth piece of organisation, they had a lightbulb moment.
Maybe it was time for a package holiday firm allowing people to tailor their ski trips to what they needed, find the best place to go to, and that put customer service centre stage.
Alexander and Marcus Blunt, the brothers who founded ski holiday firm Heidi
With both the brothers working in the travel industry, they figured out how to test their concept and gauge the appetite for it and then launched their start-up in 2018, while working full-time jobs – and both having babies born that year.
They made a pact that if they could do £500,000 worth of sales in their first year, they would quit their jobs and go all-in.
From there, in the space of less than eight years Heidi has grown to become the UK’s second biggest package holiday firm. That’s no mean feat considering the pandemic hit just two years in – and halfway through the ski holiday season.
At that point their fledgling business had to get the holidaymakers it had on the slopes in Europe back home and cancel the remaining trips for the rest of the season.
They then had to decide what to do as the pandemic rumbled on, shutting down and seriously disrupting the holiday industry.
The Blunts could have given up at that point but found a way to turn the forced break to their advantage when travel re-opened.
Since then, Heidi has grown rapidly and Marcus and Alexander talk through how they have expanded the business through a laser focus on customer service and feedback, clever use of social media and a smart tech platform for their slick and highly customisable booking system.
