EasyGroup

The easyGroup, founded in 1998, is the holding company controlling the easy ventures; it is privately owned by Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Many of the companies follow the easy format of taking away the frills in something to make it cheaper overall, plus using the yield management system of supply and demand. In the last few years the company has started to franchise the businesses to expanded and cut down costs. It is based in the Rotunda in Camden Town, London, United Kingdom.

= History =

It started with his no frills airline easyJet in March 1995 then later his set-up the internet café chain, easyEverything (now easyInternetcafé). In April 2000 the company set-up the car rental company, easyRentacar (now easyCar) and, later, internet shopping comparison site, easyValue, firstly in partnership with Kelkoo, then switching to Shopping.com.

On 21 August 2001, the credit card company, easyMoney was set up with Accucard (now part of Lloyds TSB), which was expanded on 14th February 2005 with the announcement that unbundled car insurance products provided by Zurich Financial Services would be sold later in the year.

The 23 May 2003, the film company, easyCinema at the Point cinema in Milton Keynes was opened, offering screenings from 20p if booked well in advance. The cinema initially struggled as major distributors were not prepared release new films to the company using the yield-management model. First run films are now available, but at fixed prices. The cinema has also relented on not serving popcorn and drinks (claimed to save on cleaning costs); these are now available for £1.

To counter the bus company, Megabus, the company started easyBus on the 30 July 2004.

December 2004 was an active period for easyGroup. On the 9th December 2004, the men s toiletries range easy4men was launched together with Boots the Chemist. easyJobs, a partnership with Monster.com, began operation on 11 December 2004. On the 17 December 2004, the company lanuched easyPizza, a yield management delivery-only pizza company in Milton Keynes. This was followed quickly by easyMusic, in conjuction with Wippit, on 22 December 2004, with copyrighted music downloads offered from 25p, although minimum transaction value is £1 and there are charges for using credit cards and SMS payment methods.

== easyCruise ==

The no frills cruise liner targeting the 18-40 age-group, rather than the traditional retired market, was launched on Friday 6 May 2005.

The service operates night-time departures calling between ports in Saint-Tropez, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Imperia, Genoa and Portofino. It is possible to join the ship at any port and stay for a minimum of two, to a maximum of fourteen nights. Prices vary according to cabin type and demand. In a departure from the model employed by easyJet it is possible to book via travel agents as well as direct through the easyCruise website. Recently easyCruise has annouced the winter departures, calling at Barbados, St Vincent, Martinique, The Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia.

The cabins offer a simple bed and bathroom: most do not have windows and use of a maid service during the stay will incur an additional charge. Stelios revealed that the initial idea of requiring customers to be responsible for all room cleaning or incur a penalty charge didnt go down too well. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2100-1601781,00.html]

easyCruise, based in Liberia, is a wholly owned subsidiary of easyGroup. The service is managed by V Ships of Monaco.

The launch and early days of easyCruise are being tracked for a Sky One documentary.

== easyMobile ==

easyMobile started on , although there was an introductory offer until the end of June (2005) of 6p per minute and 2p per SMS. One popular feature is an auto-topup facility which debits the users credit or debit card when phone credit falls to a preset level. Many customers have found this a useful intermediate between usual pre-pay and contracts. Per-second call charging significantly lowers call costs particularly when roaming. easyMobile s competitors commonly charge for the first minute and per-second there after.

Rival mobile service, Orange SA, is suing easyGroup as it claims the use of the orange easyMobile logo breaches its trademark and may confuse customers [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4336563.stm]. easyGroup challenges this assertion.

The easyMobile operation is inspired by Telmore, a Danish Mobile Virtual Network Operator, using the T-Mobile network.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the service is struggling to be a success [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtmlxml=/money/2005/05/08/cneasy08.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/05/08/ixcity.html]

In April it was announced the easyMobile will expand into the Netherlands by Summer 2005 in partnership with Telfort[http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39129380,00.htm] . In September it was announced that the service would also launch in Germany in partnership with T-Mobile [http://www.easymobile.nl/germanyUK/].

== easyCinema DVD Rental==

The 10th March 2005 saw the commencement of easyCinema DVD Rental, first announced in November 2004. This is a partnership with Video Island, the company operating rental services for several other retail brands. However, unlike many on-line DVD rental services, there is no monthly subscription but the user purchases credits at £1.99 each (minimum purchase is 4 credits). One credit permits one DVD rental and a maximum of three DVDs can be rented at one time. For customers renting one disc per week the offering is competitive to the subscription services, which typically allow one rental at a time, charging around £7.97 [http://www.tesco.com/dvdrental] to £9.99 [http://www.lovefilm.com] per month.

= easy Companies =

*easyJet no frills airline *easyInternetcafé internet cafés (formerly known as easyEverything) *easyCar no frills car rental (formerly known as easyRentacar) *easyValue Internet shopping comparison *easyMoney credit cards at easymoneycreditcard.com and insurance at easymoneyinsurance.com **easyMoney (insurance)- unbundled car insurance in partnership with Zurich Financial Services, part of the easyMoney business *easyCinema no frills cinemas *easyCinema (DVD rental) - a pay-as-you-go online DVD rental *easyBus no frills bus company *easy4men a men s toiletries range *easyJobs an employment search engine *easyPizza a yield management pizza delivery company. *easyMusic an Internet music website with a mixture of well-known and unsigned bands *easyCruise a no frills cruise line *easyMobile an internet, no frills mobile phone service *easyHotel a no frills hotel (now taking bookings for opening on 1 August 2005) and hotel booking service. The easyHotel is at 14 Lexham Gardens, Kensington, London W8 5JE. A franchise in Basel, Switzerland is expected to open in September 2005. *easyWatch - a Swatch-style range of watches made by Zeon (company). See Reuters article

= In the pipeline =

*easyTelecom a fixed telephone provider (postponed) [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtmltype=topNews&storyID=8026672]

= External links =

*[http://www.easy.com easyGroup s website] - For group information, latest news and links to other easyGroup companies.

Press reports *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1535332,00.html EasyCinema eyes West End debut , The Guardian, 25th July 2005] *[http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-1685452,00.html Stelios completes 10 years over easy . The Times (UK), 9th July 2005] *[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1479117,00.html What s Orange and Floats That s easy... easyCruise article, The Observer (UK), 8th May 2005] *[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2100-1601781_1,00.html Here comes Stelios ... Just when you thought it was safe to go to the Riviera , The Sunday Times (UK), 8th May 2005] *[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtmlxml=/money/2005/05/08/cneasy08.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/05/08/ixcity.html EasyMobile s attempt to break into the UK market flops , The Telegraph (UK), 8th May 2005] *[http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.htmlsiteSect=108&sid=6066859&cKey=1126075719000 No frills and little sleep in Basel s easyHotel, Swissinfo, September 6, 2005]