I N T E RV I E W BELIEVING IN BETTER After the sale of Santa Fe Relocation to Lazarus Equity Partners with the support of Proventus Capital Partners, the business is now reviewing its activities and making changes to ensure it remains competitive. FIDI Focus editor Dominic Weaver spoke to CEO Yann Blandy about what the relocations industry can expect from Santa Fe now and in the future C Eighty per cent of the issues that have happened to Santa Fe have actually been created by Santa Fe hange can be a great thing. And, as of September 2019, Yann Blandy, one of the founding partners of Lazarus Equity Partners and the new CEO of Santa Fe Relocation, has taken the helm with a brief to push the company forward and further develop the strengths for which it has become known: global mobility expertise, global reach, quality and longevity. Key to his plan is the continued attention on supporting and developing the international team of experts at the heart of the company, while also accelerating growth. Attracted to Santa Fe Relocation by its potential to be even better, Blandy is looking for a refreshed and targeted focus on improving the efficiency of Santa Fes international operations, capitalising on regional and local expertise to keep delivering quality relocation services and a high level of customer satisfaction. Yann Blandy is unequivocal about the source of Santa Fes recent problems: they arose from within the company itself. Looking at it from the outside and then from the inside, Id say 80 per cent of the issues that have happened to Santa Fe have actually been created by Santa Fe, he says, and although the company has been trading in a tricky, slow-growing market, we carry the weight of our own mistakes to a large extent. He adds that while many of decisions previously taken by the business were relevant at the time, on reflection they took Santa Fe in the wrong direction. Specifically, these could include the way in which it entered the US market or looked to sell its immigrations business to CIBT at the beginning of 2019. But, says Blandy, people management was also a factor. Weve let go too many people who knew this industry, he says. We forgot that this business is built on relationships and I think weve treated 16 FF295 FebMar20 pp16-19 Yann Blandy Interview.indd 16 Yann Blandy, incoming CEO at Santa Fe it as if we were a logistics company, which is just moving containers. This is anything but just a logistics business. As an aside, Blandy says that being the only large relocation business listed on the stock exchange created a competitive disadvantage for Santa Fe. In an industry where firms are usually private or owned by private equity, as a listed company, he says, your businesss figures are freely available, and that creates an unnecessary burden. Following the restructure, Blandys team has prioritised the reassurance of staff, customers, and the market in general, to ensure Santa Fes intentions are clear. We have been reassuring customers that we are partners for the long term and have the financing in WWW. F I D I . OR G 20/01/2020 14:54