Guestlogix Rebooted: In-Flight Retail Specialist Rebrands and Relaunches at FTE Europe
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APEX Insight: With a new look and loyalty-focused brand promise, Guestlogix appeared with a booth and a public statement today at FTE Europe in Dublin, Ireland. To help rebuild trust in the firm and drive the company’s new vision, Guestlogix has installed an all-new management team and named Mike Abramsky as CEO.
One year after the July 2016 sale of its ‘Onboard’ business to a trio of new investors, which followed the May 2016 sale of Irish tech firm Open Jaw Technologies, which followed bankruptcy protection and abrupt changes of leadership; Toronto-based onboard retail solutions firm Guestlogix has settled up with creditors and is back in the saddle.
With a new look and brand promise focusing more on loyalty than before, new leadership team and a renewed mission to “help airlines capture the highest ancillary revenues while delivering an incredible passenger experience”, Guestlogix appeared with a booth and a public statement today at the increasingly well-attended Future Travel Experience (FTE) Europe in Dublin, Ireland.
Interestingly, or perhaps intentionally, Dublin is also the hometown if Guestlogix’s main competitor Retail inMotion (RiM), which was recently acquired by Lufthansa Group along with sister company Media inMotion. RiM is also exhibiting this week at FTE Europe and has made steady progress in the in-flight ancillary market over the past 18 months, capitalizing on the lull in Guestlogix’s progress to acquire a host of new airline customers, some of which were former Guestlogix clients.
Guestlogix never actually stopped operations, and has retained just over 30 airline customers. Now the firm stands ready and poised to do battle again in an increasingly competitive market, despite being somewhat on the back foot. Guestlogix is nothing if not scrappy – having risen out of obscurity to transform in-flight retail with purpose-made point of sale devices between its 2002 inception and Q1 2015, when it reported 80% year-on-year-growth figures before encountering financial problems.
To help rebuild trust in the firm and drive the company’s new vision, Guestlogix has installed an all-new management team and named Mike Abramsky as CEO. Educated at Harvard and MIT, Abramsky is a top-ranked financial analyst and with a track-record of leading technology businesses back to growth and sustainability. Most recently, Abramsky served as managing director of RBC Capital Markets from 2008 to 2012 and as president of ARGUS Software, a USD $60M global enterprise software leader in FinTech for commercial real estate, from 2012 to 2016.
“Airlines want to put customer satisfaction at the heart of their operations, but it takes the right technology.” – Mike Abramsky, Guestlogix CEO
“There’s never been a more critical time – or opportunity – for airlines to invest in solutions that improve the onboard retail experience for their customers,” said Guestlogix CEO Mike Abramsky. “Airlines want to put customer satisfaction at the heart of their operations, but it takes the right technology – and strategic vision – to raise revenues without hurting customer satisfaction.”
According to today’s announcement, Guestlogix is building on the company’s heritage to “develop solutions that will help airlines ‘close the gap’ in passenger experience and transform their operational approach to retailing, support airline revenue goals, and empower all airline staff, from ground crew and gate agents to flight attendants and passenger experience specialists.”