TUI Group
TUI Group partnered with Alsico for innovative, sustainable uniforms for their staff, enhancing comfort, fit, and brand identity across global destinations.
the situation
TUI is the world’s leading tourism groups, serving over 20 million customers across 180 regions in the world. The travel specialist, with over 50 years of experience in the industry, is known for its diverse portfolio encompassing tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and cruise liners.
TUI Group operates an ‘always on’ approach to evaluation and innovation in order to fulfil its corporate culture responsibilities and meet today’s requirements for its TUI team of over 60,000 members. The leading brand’s corporate culture is built around a global responsibility for economic, environmental and social sustainability.
In 2019, as a result of periodic approach evaluation, the TUI’s brand team began the search for a partner to collaborate with on upgrading the resort and hotel uniforms for team members stationed in holiday destinations across the world.
Case Study
why alsico
After an assessment of available providers, TUI connected with Alsico to discuss the current resort representative uniforms and areas for development that had been identified internally.
All TUI resort uniforms were required to be hard-wearing, suitable for frequent washing and fast-drying to accommodate quick turnaround for the team. TUI was particularly keen to work with a partner who could leverage fabric knowledge and experience to bring innovation to the uniforms and meet these needs.
Alsico was able to demonstrate this approach from the early stages, for example, recommending a chino fabric that was hard-wearing, offered flexibility and was breathable whilst still looking smart for the TUI BLUE hotels.
The location of TUI’s resorts was also a key factor in the partner selection process because fabric requirements varied significantly based on the resort type, climate and role profile, therefore ability to develop a comprehensive range would be crucial. For example, for those working through the summer months in Southern Europe, fabric breathability and accommodation for perspiration are high priorities. Whereas, during the winter seasons, warmth and protection climb the list of importance for the wearer.
Working with Alsico was really easy and it was great to have a partner who had so much existing knowledge and ideas
From early conversations, alsico demonstrated a detailed understanding of the uniform requirements and presented an approached that would support TUI's global responsibility for economic, environmental, and social sustainability. As a result, TUI selected alsico as a partner for its overseas unforms in early 2019
Case Study
implementation
Alsico first conducted a thorough review of the current resort garments and discussed uniform requirements with TUI in detail in order to begin designing the new pieces.
Once designed and developed, Alsico and TUI collaborated on a number of small-scale uniform wearer trials across the worldwide resort locations.
Following the trial’s roll out, feedback was collected from the resort teams, with positive sentiment towards the uniform’s fit, comfort and breathability. TUI was particularly pleased with the wearer results, and also spotted an opportunity to make the uniform even closer suited to its specific brand needs.
In addition to a focus on the fabric and wearer experience, TUI was also keen to assess how the uniform performed for brand identity. For TUI customers, it is crucial that a company representative can be spotted quickly, therefore the team requested that a large red TUI smile would be added to the backs of the resort uniform, which Alsico was able to action efficiently.
To support the uniform’s launch, Alsico also provided an innovative digital platform with cutting-edge smart sizing technology and a chat system to assist TUI team members with any uniform queries.
The digital platform has also been a great success and shows how committed Alsico has been to providing not just the right uniform for our teams, but also the support required to make the ordering process quick and easy
Christian Torres, brand lead at TUI said, “From our early conversations with the Alsico team, we were happy with the pace of development and how quickly we were able to get a wearer trial underway. Working with Alsico was really easy and it was great to have a partner who had so much existing knowledge and ideas, because that allowed us to introduce brand new features that are really useful for our team, and expedited the design process.
“The digital platform has also been a great success and shows how committed Alsico has been to providing not just the right uniform for our teams, but also the support required to make the ordering process quick and easy – which traditionally can be an intimidating aspect for new starters when joining a company with a uniform.”
Case Study
the results
Following the success of the trial, the ALSIFLEX® trousers are currently being added to the Openreach customer portal for a full roll out to its 30,000 engineers. Arco is also currently looking at the incorporation of the ALSIFLEX® range to its website to serve customers across its key sectors.
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On future plans with Alsico, Christian Torres, brand lead at TUI shared:
“We have a great relationship with the team at Alsico and we are always working closely on future developments for our TUI uniforms in line with our corporate culture. Each time we catch up, it is clear to see that Alsico is committed to being ahead of the curve in its approach to innovation and sensitivity to growing demand for sustainable fabric choices. We are excited to explore the next phase of uniform development together.”