Gibson said: “The strategy we were presenting to the people that backed the placing was that if we build the rewards pro-gramme up we get to a position where our overheads can be covered by the income just from that. Any income from tactical promotions is then jam on top.

“Because we had a good rela-tionship with people like Morgan Stanley, there was a belief there’d be more of that coming.

“We raised £1.6m at that point. We had to meet a set of profita-bility and cashflow forecasts, and we’ve done well and are still on track 18 months later.

“That’s gone a long way to restoring significant confidence among shareholders.”

Buy and Fly was launched in 2000 and took off when Landround was chosen by Morgan Stanley to provide Buy and Fly with its UK credit cards (now Goldfish).

In Ireland, where Landround’s bigger partners do not have a presence, Buy and Fly points are available with Tesco Clubcards and MBNA credit cards, as well as through O2 and AXA.

In Sweden, Landround has won a contract with Resurs bank.

Landround also secured a major deal with Banesto bank in Spain, though that contract is now coming to an end.

“We don’t have the brand strength of Air Miles or Nectar,” said Gibson. “They have marketing budgets bigger than our turnover. But we’re quite competitive as a budget proposition.”

Landround itself is an ABTA-registered travel agent which organises the travel and leisure requirements for its promotions. Its vouchers have been used by companies from Virgin to Tesco.

Gibson says promotions offer companies another way of differentiating their products or services without resorting to price cuts.

As well as its own schemes, Landround also provides “white label” services to companies who want to run own-brand promotions.

Its biggest customer is Citigroup, for whom it runs programmes in Portugal, Belgium and Sweden, with two further countries on the way.

Landround’s smallest subsidiary is Travel Offers, a club which offers its members free accommodation at some 320 hotels provided they commit to buying dinner and breakfast.

Gibson says the credit crunch-related slowdown could have a negative impact on Landround as people cut back on their credit card spending – and therefore on the number of Landround points they use.

But he says Landround’s exposure to different markets – just 25% of its rewards programme revenues come from the UK – gives it some protection, while the company is also expanding into new markets.

For Landround’s promotions arm, however, the story could be very different.

“There’s an argument that people promote products more heavily in tough times,” said Gibson.

“Without the budget for a television campaign, people could move to a more tactical campaign with flight vouchers. It’s an alternative to a price cut to provide an incentive.

“There’s nothing that’s concerning me too much at this stage.”

Landround this year reported a pre-tax loss of £1.68m, thanks to significant writedowns on the value of Travel Offers, but revenues were up and the results were well-received by analysts.

“The real impact on the share price and on people investing in the business is going to await getting back to profitability,” said Gibson. “People want to see numbers in the black before they start getting too interested.

“I feel we’re well on the way to that. We’re not out of the woods yet, but significantly more positive than we were.”

Q&A

Lives: In Macclesfield, with wife and three children

Highest educational qualification: Chartered accountant (Scotland)

Proudest achievement: It’s still work in progress, but I’d like to think it’s rebuilding this business and pulling it back from what was a difficult and precarious situation.

Best advice: You start from where you are rather than where you’d like to be

Biggest regret: Some of the acquisitions we made at the height of the IT boom. We bought some at exactly the wrong time in the market.

Unfulfilled ambition: I’d like to be part of something that’s seen as a significant business success story. I have tended to have a career up to now that’s been working in businesses in fairly tough times. It would be to demonstrate a successful turnaround.

alistairhoughton@dailypost.co.uk