Saturday's Daily Express had a full page interview with Stelios about the easyGroup companies. Students and followers of the easyGroup may be interested in the full text:

 

How would you sum up the philosophy and common thread running through the easyGroup businesses, which now range from Internet cafés and car rental to cruises and mobile phones?

All easyGroup companies reduce prices by eliminating frills and selling direct to the public through their respective websites. This means we can charge lower prices. www.easy.com will tell you about the range of industries we are looking at. In short, we have progressed from airlines and car hire and are now looking at businesses as diverse as hotels, buses, music downloads and men's toiletries.

How much do you have to do with easyJet these days. What is your and family's share stake and what is its future?
I am no longer an executive at easyJet but I am the largest single shareholder and my family owns 41% of easyJet in total. The name easyJet is licensed to the airline by the easyGroup, my private company, and I currently have the right to re-install myself as chairman of easyJet if I should ever wish to do so.

 

What drives you into so may different fields? Is there an element of personal interest as well as business opportunity?
Now that we have established a brand with a set of values, we can apply it to more and more industries. I think I have a low boredom threshold too which means that if I am any good at anything, it's being a serial entrepreneur. I feel compelled to create more businesses!

 

What drives you into so may different fields? Do you have to have a personal interest or would you embark on any venture that was legal and made good business sense? You are a wealthy man already. What drives you on to launch new ventures? Is it the money or the challenge or both?

I think I have just about turned all my hobbies into businesses and as a businessman, I must consider applying the easy brand to any venture which is both legal and which can give consumers a better deal. I think success is a journey, not a destination.

 

Do you worry about spreading yourself too thin instead of focusing on a core group of businesses?
Trying to be an entrepreneur is, by definition, a risky business! For the time being the sum of the parts of the easyGroup are more valuable than the whole. Anyway, as each individual company grows I employ corporate managers to run that particular business in a more structured manner.

 

What is the biggest achievement of the easyJet concept?
Or the easyGroup concept, if I may be so bold. Getting customers to buy direct and online, not through their travel agents, was the biggest step made by the easyGroup. The Internet is a great tool that gives you a cost advantage over competitors who do not use it efficiently.

 

Did you find it frustrating having to answer to City investors? Would you consider future flotations?
It is a sign that a business is established when the founder can walk away and leave it in the hands of corporate managers. I am an entrepreneur who takes risks but publicly quoted companies like easyJet and Stelmar, my tanker business, both of which have shareholders' money, should be much more risk averse. I look forward to the day when I float a third one of my companies on a stock market.

 

Do you worry about the potential negative impact on the environment from the explosion in low cost air travel?
I think this is a collective responsibility shared by all of us. People are going to travel and will continue to do so by car, bus or train if planes are not available. easyJet has a fleet of modern and efficient aircraft and the airline makes sure its seats are full before their planes take off.

 

Do you enjoy challenging the established order, such as your dispute with Hollywood film distributors?
The cinema industry charges the same price for a film irrespective of which night it is showing or how long it has been on. This does not make sense as the value is certainly different and it is the reason why cinemas in the UK are only 20% full on average. Four fifths of cinema seats go empty! this is an industry crying out for someone to change entrenched and outdated business practises and I would like to be the one who does it!

 

Are you going to expand the easyCinema format to high streets throughout the country?
Provided I can persuade the Hollywood studios that we can make more money together while giving the consumer a good deal, then yes, expansion will happen. I also want to let owners and operators of local cinemas sell seats in their cinema through the easyCinema website. I want to give them the leverage of the easy brand and the power to sell over the Internet.

 

What makes you think you can succeed with a new mobile phone service in an already competitive UK market?
Existing operators paid billions for third generation licenses so now they are obliged to sell consumers expensive mobiles that take photographs or which have internet access. By providing good quality calls only and asking customers to buy over the Internet, my costs and therefore my prices will be much cheaper. That's what consumers want, I believe.

 

How do you find the challenge of competing with another transport entrepreneur, Stagecoach's Brian Souter, with the launch of your minibus services?
I enjoy competition, it's what makes prices cheaper for consumers. easyBus will be the easyJet of the road, providing frequent minibus services between areas which are underserved. Once again, best prices for those who book online and in advance. Stagecoach have decided to use 90-seater buses. Filling those on a Tuesday in November is going to be tricky and the most expensive bus is an empty one.

 

Are Internet café concessions in McDonald's and rental car franchise deals signs of struggling businesses?
I think they are signs of healthy businesses and like a true entrepreneur, I've made a fair few mistakes to get them there! At the risk of repeating myself what consumers want from Internet access and car hire is a cheap and efficient service. By sharing rent with McDonald's, the Post Office, Sainsbury's and so on I can offer a complementary service at a better price. The same applies for franchisees abroad. They can do it more efficiently than I can from an office in London.

 

How much of a gamble is your foray into men's toiletries to take on industry giants like Gillette?
Aspirant entrepreneurs have to be gamblers! However, to be honest, I want the retailer here to take the financial risk. I know nothing about manufacturing or selling cosmetics, but I do have a no-nonsense brand which can say to men "here's a product which is not a rip-off and will also protect your skin while you shave and after you shave." Gillette are the British Airways of this industry.

 

Are there any businesses into which you would avoid extending the easy brand?
Funerals. No matter how much you vary the price you can only get someone to consume the product once! Also tobacco or even an industry which might be thought of as immoral. I think those are the areas where you could do more harm than good to your brand.

 

If you could fly anywhere on an easyJet route, where would you go and why?
I most certainly do not have a private jet and when I'm flying short haul in Europe I use easyJet whenever possible. My most frequent routes are to Nice and Athens. I have an apartment in Monaco and my family are mainly in Athens so I use easyJet to go home at weekends and to visit friends and family.

 

Did coming from a Greek background help or hinder your insights into the British pysche?
I think the credit is due to Britain and the British themselves. I studied here so I speak the language and the airline industry was deregulating in the UK in the mid-nineties, allowing for small players like me to have a chance. It just couldn't have happened in, for example, France or even Greece where Olympic is a state owned monopoly. And I'm still here as Britain is the most open and entrepreneurial of European countries, with a sensible legal system and a powerful stock market.

 

What's been your biggest mistake?
The early growth of easyInternetcafé during the dotcom bubble. You could take an unprofitable company to the stock market then (amazing but true!) so I charged off round the world buying up prime real estate in city centres for my Internet cafés. Mind you, one of my biggest successes has been turning that company around. In the past eighteen months we have trebled the number of outlets and now share premises with companies like McDonald's, the Post Office and Sainsburys. Shared rent means lower costs and cheaper prices to customers... sounds familiar?

 

Who is your all-time business hero?
No one person but I admire Richard Branson for successfully extending his brand, Jack Welch for creating such a poweful conglomerate at GE and Sam Walton for creating the world's biggest retailer Wal-mart which proves that people want it cheap. And I have to mention my father too who was a self-made man and a powerful influence on me. He also lent me £5 million to start easyJet when I was only 26, that makes anyone a hero in my books!