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Thomas Cook to close 24 shops across UK

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Thomas Cook to close 24 shops across UK

Sep 22, 2011 08:00AM GMT

Thomas Cook to close 24 shops across UK

Thomas Cook has begun a 90-day consultation with more than 100 staff after announcing plans to close 24 high street shops around the country.

The company said 22 of the closures were because of leases expiring and two because shops were making a loss. Outlets are to close in towns as far apart as Northampton, Bangor, Cleethorpes and Stirling.

Ian Ailles, Thomas Cook UK mainstream chief executive, said the firm’s shop network was constantly under review.

“Our high street stores are the most popular way for customers to book with us and an essential part of our multi-channel approach, alongside websites and sales centres,” he said.

“However, there are times, like today, when we will propose closing a small number of individual stores to remain effective in this competitive environment.

“We will do all that we can to minimise the impact on affected customers and colleagues.”

The staff consultation is one of three under way at the company. The group is in a formal consultation with Thomas Cook Airlines staff in Manchester where it plans 250 job cuts as it axes six aircraft from the UK fleet for this winter.

Thomas Cook is also consulting 400 call centre staff who handle holiday bookings in Peterborough and Falkirk on shift changes. The company wants call centre employees to work later, taking calls up to 10pm, and on Sundays.

The shop closures come ahead of a loss of about 75 outlets expected to result from the joint-venture merger with The Co-op and Midlands Co-op Travel.

Summer lates boost keeps Tui Travel on course

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Summer lates boost keeps Tui Travel on course

Sep 22, 2011 07:50AM GMT

Summer lates boost keeps Tui Travel on course

A strong performance in this summer’s lates market has helped Tui Travel keep on course to meet its full year expectations.

Improved margins for late sales in the UK and Germany have helped boost Europe’s largest travel group. Winter 2011/12 trading to date is described as “satisfactory” overall with differentiated holidays performing well, particularly in the UK and Nordic regions.

Winter capacity has been cut by 7% from the UK to Egypt and Tunisia following political upheaval in North Africa. This has helped push the average selling price up by 6%, also reflecting higher fuel and accommodation costs.

Differentiated holiday sales are up by 7% year on year while the percentage of online sales has grown by three percentage points to 37%. The group has sold 10% of it summer 2012 programme from the UK, described as being broadly in line with last year.

Bookings are currently 11% down, partly reflecting a 4% drop in capacity, while average selling prices are up by 10%.

“Margin performance is a key driver for the group. We anticipate that in the UK, cost inflation will be just over 5% for summer 2012 and our prices are designed to recover these input costs in this competitive market,” the company said in a trading update today.

Chief executive Peter Long said: “We are pleased with our performance in the lates market for summer 2011, and most of our programmes are now almost fully sold.

“We remain confident that the full year results will be in line with our expectations. Trading for winter 2011/12 is satisfactory overall, but we are anticipating a slow recovery in trading to Egypt and Tunisia, and have managed our capacity accordingly.”

He added: “Our focus remains on differentiated product, maintaining margins, prudent capacity management, and delivering our turnaround and cost savings programme. The flexibility of our business model means that we are well placed to achieve this.”

Holidays 4U boss says cashflow problems led to firm’s downfall

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Holidays 4U boss says cashflow problems led to firm’s downfall

Aug 17, 2011 08:00AM GMT

Holidays 4U boss says cashflow problems led to firm’s downfall

The director of Turkey specialist Holidays 4U has blamed its failure on a lack of cashflow after it was required to provide guarantees to the value of £4.5 million to renew its Atol in March this year.

Speaking exclusively to Travel Weekly, Holidays 4U director Mete Faks said the operator found it increasingly difficult to weather tough trading in May, June and July because of the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) requirements.

Its cashflow was also affected by Barclaycard Merchant Services putting the operator on a 45-day deferral scheme for payments.

“People are asking, why did this company go bust in August?” said Faks.

“If we had that cash we would still be trading, and I wouldn’t be having this interview right now.

“I don’t bear the CAA malice. The CAA is looking after consumer protection, Barclaycard is looking after its corner – yet it’s the director that gets the blame for the failure.”

Faks said requirements from the regulator and credit card companies made it difficult for specialist operators to survive in the current market.

“Turkey has gone the same way as the Greek market,” he added.

“There used to be masses of independent Greek operators, now there are very few. It is hard to survive with the regulatory burden and the big two becoming stronger and stronger.”

Cosmos and Wings Abroad both added capacity to Turkey this week as customers hurried to rebook their summer holidays.

Chris Mansell, marketing manager at Wings Abroad, said: “The sudden extra demand from agents had to be catered for and, having had to trim back capacity earlier in the year, this unexpected number of requests for holidays is welcome.”

Eighteen staff at Brighton-based Holidays 4U lost their jobs when the operator failed. More than 130 people have joined a Facebook group to help former Holidays 4U sales and marketing manager Joe Lavers find a job.