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Stelios Haji-Ioannou is trying to re-invent the cruise ship, pizza, and shaving cream businesses, as well as any other business where consumers are being cheated. Stelios Easy Group company, which is based in the United Kingdom, would allow everyone to enjoy a sample of the high life. Stelios is putting the Easy brand on an almost infinite number of discount products and services, including movie rentals, shaving cream, Internet cafes, pizzas, a wristwatch, and a hotel. Stelios believes that he can apply the concepts of yield management and no-frills service that have worked for his EasyJet airline to just about any business. Stelios says Easy will create the first lifestyle brand for the masses and will make generic goods and services an encompassing experience that is affordable and fun. A spokesman for the company says Easy is the largest low-cost brand in Europe and has no competitors on its scale. Among topics covered are Stelios background, including entry to his father's tanker business. The Easy team is still learning how to adapt yield-management techniques to new ventures after finding success elusive early on. Among more successful ventures is EasyCinema.com, which is the discount operator of one movie house in a suburb of London. The secret of filling the house was to cut ticket price by half. Customers book via the Internet and pay less for booking in advance. They print out their own tickets. A chain of Easy movie houses is planned, and Easy is also discussing the purchase of the famous Empire Cinema in London. The deal could substantially bolster Easy's cinema ambitions and enhance visibility for a new DVD rental business recently lunched under the name Easy Cinema.
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