Lunn Poly

Lunn Poly

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Travel
Predecessor	Polytechnic Touring Association Sir Henry Lunn Travel
Founded	1965
Defunct	2004
Fate	Rebranded as Thomson, now TUI
Headquarters	Luton , United Kingdom
Number of locations	785 (2004 prior to rebrand)
Key people	John McEwan - Managing Director (2000-2003)
Parent	TUI Travel

Lunn Poly was, at one time, the largest chain of travel agents in the United Kingdom.

History

Lunn Poly holiday shop

The company originated from two successful travel agencies established in the 1890s, the Polytechnic Touring Association and Sir Henry Lunn Travel. The latter an early travel innovator for winter sports trips to Switzerland and Italy, as well as religious tours to Israel. Both firms were acquired in the 1950s by the British Eagle airline group, and combined into Lunn Poly in 1965.

It became a nationalised industry as part of the Transport Holding Company (THC) in 1969, a controlling stake costing £169,000. Trading losses during the ownership were estimated at £1.2million before the sale to Sunair in 1971 for £175,000. In October, Sunair and Lunn Poly operated the first Boeing 747 package holiday charter flight to Majorca using a leased BOAC aircraft. In 1972, the company became part of Thomson Travel Group.

Lunn Poly became an early trade innovator, by splitting its leisure and business travel. High street shops concentrated on package holidays, specialized offices were structured to serve the needs of business and industry. This business model was highly successful throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the mid-1990s it was the largest travel agency in the UK. In 1995 it entered the holiday voucher market, valued at £400million to compete with Thomas Cook. By 2000, Lunn Poly unveiled alternative store formats including a superstore which had five key areas - long haul, short breaks, summer sun, families and lates under its brand getaway - and even trialled specialist family stores, starting in Coventry.

When TUI UK, which had acquired Thomson Travel, rebranded Britannia Airways as Thomsonfly in November 2003, the company insisted that there were no plans to rebrand Lunn Poly. The headquarters was moved from Lunn Poly House in Leamington Spa to London. In October 2004, TUI sold a number of Travel House Group stores to Martin Morgan Travel, before confirming the remainder would be rebranded to Lunn Poly. On 2 November 2004, the announcement was made that all Lunn Poly shops in the United Kingdom were to be rebranded as Thomson. In 2011, former employee Robert Bonnar was jailed for admitting to laundering £500,000 through a Lunn Poly store in Glasgow between 2002 and 2003.

Advertising

Lunn Poly was famous for a long-running advertising campaign on television. These adverts featured people looking into what holidays the company offered. Another person would then say to them in disbelief "Lunn Poly? Get away!", at which point the person would disappear into thin air and end up at a holiday spot.