It all started with a dream!
To build a world famous brand!
25th November 2022
Dear friends
of the easy family of brands,
Welcome to the fourth edition of easyHistory. Think of this booklet as a photo album – telling our story since 1994 when I embarked on my dream to create a world-famous brand. At the tender age of 27, I started building a family of brands centred on the word “easy” which I was determined to make a household name.
Progress over the last 29 years has been far from uneventful, as one would expect from such an entrepreneurial adventure. Some of you may have read one of the previous editions of easyHistory, or viewed the video version released at the start of 2022.
So much has happened since the first edition was signed off on the 6th February 2020, a time when almost none of us had heard the term Covid 19. The fact that we have republished and are now into a fourth edition reflects the fact that so many of you seemed to enjoy and appreciate reading about the history of the easy family of brands.
The printed version has doubled in size since 2020 and that is no accident. We have been busy filling in the gaps and adding a lot more detail that demonstrates my vision from day one was to make the brand “easy” a household name in as many business sectors and in as many countries as possible.
The story goes back to 1994 when I first came across the business model of the low-cost airline in America at a time when Europe was opening up its skies to competition and I realised that setting up an airline is a great way to create awareness and build a brand.
The brand was “easy” from day one even if, as expected, the airline easyJet became much more famous than the other members of the easy family of brands.
You could say that my best business idea in my life was to create a pioneering low-cost airline but that the second best idea was to keep the ownership of all the easy brands including easyJet in my own private company called easyGroup thus giving me more stable recurring income from royalties.
At easyGroup we have well diversified sources of income that have allowed us to manage our way through the pandemic. The royalty business model means we have income for as long as there are revenues – even without profits. This is important in challenging economic times and high stock market volatility.
So this is our story and I hope you enjoy the read. easyHistory is organised more or less chronologically since 1994 and then by geography and by business sector right up to the present day.
Yours faithfully
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
creator and owner of the
easy family of brands
www.easy.com