Meet Stephen Knight and Brett Norton, co-founders of Ultimate Travel Club

Ultimate Travel Club, launched in September 2021 is founded by Stephen Knight and Brett Norton. Both have a huge passion and love of travel and the business is built from knowing there is a better way for the travel industry to work. 

Stephen Knight, Chairman: Stephen Knight is a seasoned Chief Marketing Officer with over 35 years’ experience. He has worked for Fortune Top 500 and FTSE Top 100 companies including The Walt Disney Company as the SVP for Brand and Marketing in EMEA. A former advertising agency executive, Stephen founded the World’s first virtual full-service marketing agency, Pimento, which now has a global network of nearly 5500 people within 200 agencies and consultancies. He has served on various boards and holds several NED positions and has worked across the travel industry with Cruise, Airline and OTAs. 

Brett Norton, Chief Executive Officer: Brett has 20 years of experience in commercial strategy and marketing for travel, leisure and hospitality businesses in the UK.  Having worked both client and agency side he has been involved or working with a wide range of travel brands including Saga, Celebrity Cruises, Travelopia and Riviera. Brett specialises in commercial strategy (dovetailing revenue, sales and marketing), revenue management (pricing and optimisation) and marketing automation (digital marketing transformation).

How do you prepare for all the unknown obstacles when running your business?

It’s one of the key advantages to being a lean start-up. We’ve worked in big corporates where “the machine” can be slow to turn and facilitate change, but working with the small group of founding team members we have at UTC allows us to react to obstacles that fall into our paths. Having a diversity of experience within the team helps us find creative ways to handle obstacles together. And we’ve got a waitlist of potential subscribers who are interested in our proposition, so we can check our thoughts with them as we adapt to situations. If your readers would like to join they can go to www.ultimatetravelclub.com/join and help us make sure this business is built in a way that’s right for its members. 

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

This feels like the right time. Subscription models are everywhere (meals to cook at home, dog food, loo roll and razors!) and people are comfortable with them - it’s a tried and tested model which works. It’s this model that allows us to provide travel at wholesale prices. We both love the travel industry - that’s why it is important to us to be part of getting it back on its feet again, after such a difficult time. We’re launching this business to build – we only need a small percentage of people that the model would work for to subscribe for it to work be a success, and we’d like to build that up over the next few years.

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

No one else is offering a membership for access to wholesale prices for a huge range of travel, so our proposition sets us apart. 

With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap. How do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?

Other travel clubs select which hotels or villas their members can go to – or only have a small range of dates. Travel agents (both on and offline) have a wide range of offering, but charge commissions which eat into your holiday budget. And the more you spend, the more they charge – even if it’s just to make one booking. We’re providing the full range of holidays at home and abroad, at the best prices (guaranteed) and with ABTA / ATOL protection.

The travel industry is a big one, so there’s space for lots of different models to suit different customers, but savvy travel-lovers will appreciate the innovation our model brings.

What plans do you have for Ultimate Travel Club over the next two years?

Our plan is to grow. We have the funds to launch, and to start to drive subscriptions, but once we’ve proven the model, and understand the exact cost of acquisition through different channels, we may well look for investment in the scale-up phase.

How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?

We are a small highly experienced team from different backgrounds which means that we all have a say in decision making and it’s great to get a mix of different views. We want to create a business where we listen to our customers and build it around their wants and needs - we want our customers to be an extension of our team. 

What do you think gives a brand longevity?

People will only repeat purchase from, or recommend, a brand which fulfils their needs. Building a sustainable brand means providing great products and / or services, and dealing with customers in a appropriate way. We want to build a club that people feel real benefit from and are happy to recommend to their family and friends.

Describe your business in three words.

Ultimate Travel Club!