A Brief History

David Weston has a 17 year highly successful track record in building profitable business in highly competitive, leisure-oriented businesses in the service sector, through marketing innovation and customer focus. He is a Fellow of the Tourism Society.

David created the Great Escapes short breaks brand, and built it from a standing start to a 17% share of its highly competitive marketplace (and best in net profit margin out of all the major short breaks operators) over a five year period, winning the business a Deloitte & Touche/The Independent “Indy 100” award in May 2002 presented by the Small Businesses Minister Nigel Griffiths MP, for achieving sustained profitable growth in the top 1% of all UK mid-market companies (across all sectors).

After leading the 3i-backed Management Buy-Out which combined the holiday businesses Great Escapes, Allez France, SuperSites and Corsican Places to form the newly-created Holiday Places Group, David served for a year as the group's first Managing Director before selling up to run his own business development and marketing consultancy, Special Offers Ltd., specialising in the consumer leisure sector.

His experience also includes selling in the United States, where David served as Chief Executive of an award-winning business in the specialist educational services market. Earlier in his career, he worked in the packaging industry and then as Commercial Director of a small London advertising agency. He holds a BSc. Honours Degree in Printing & Communications Technology.

David has published articles on marketing issues in Travel Weekly, the leading UK travel trade publication, on travel in Special Interest magazine, and on wine in American News newspaper.

He is co-author of How to Start and Run a B&B (How To Books), described by one reviewer as "One of the most practical, well structured, easy to read and informative small business books I have come across. I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone considering running a B&B."

David is Chairman of the Bed & Breakfast Association, the UK trade association for the bed & breakfast sector.

David also chairs the Sherborne Area Tourism Forum, established by local government to bring together stakeholders in the tourism industry in the historically important town of Sherborne in Dorset (South-Western England), which celebrated its 13th Centenary in 2005 with a major Festival.

David’s consultancy business Special Offers Ltd. offers down-to-earth, practical and proven advice on direct marketing, database development, customer recruitment, "partnership marketing" and branding. Another area of speciality is advice on the issues that founder-owners must consider well ahead of a planned disposal of their business, in order to maximise its valuation.

The consultancy undertakes "Marketing Audits", "Website Audits", individual special projects, and also acts for clients on a longer-term retainer basis. Consultancy fees are £500 per day (there is a 20% reduction for small businesses) plus VAT and expenses, charged pro-rata based on an 8-hour working day.





David Weston with Elliot Morley MP (Environment Minister) and Dermot Blastland (MD of First Choice Holidays)