Toast - Club 18-30

Why did the package holiday brand, Club 18-30, disappear?

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up… Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers.

In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington, examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did it fail? What can we learn from it today?

In this episode, which was first broadcast in January 2024, Sean learns why Club 18-30 fell out of favour.

Its package holidays for young people were a hit for decades so why couldn't it keep going?

Sean speaks to holidaymakers who remember their Club 18-30 experiences well.

A former manager explains how they hoped to keep the brand going and why that proved impossible.

Alongside them all, analysing the business' fortunes is the self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White.

You can email the programme at [email protected]

Feel free to suggest topics which we could cover in future episodes

Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in February. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.

Toast is produced by Jon Douglas and Viant Siddique and is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.