Tag Archives: high street shop

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.”

Tui retail shake-up brings new shops and closures

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Tui retail shake-up brings new shops and closures

Tui retail shake-up brings new shops and closures

Tui Travel will open more Thomson and First Choice shops in the north and the Midlands as it targets 80% controlled distribution, but other regions will see shop closures.

Speaking to Travel Weekly in an exclusive interview, Tui Travel UK distribution director Nick Longman said two more branches would open in Scotland in the next few weeks and many other gaps in the portfolio had been identified.

“We said that we would control 80% of our sales, but within that average there are parts of the country at 90% and others at only 65%,” he said.

“So we want to get a minimum level of control everywhere.”

Longman said the company assessed levels of broadband availability and internet usage across the country, and would open shops to compensate where both were poor.

In some cases, he said shops were more cost-effective than the web.

Longman added that Tui would open shops in towns where it had previously closed them down, and said coveted units within shopping centres had started to become available as other retailers, such as MFI, Woolworths and Birthdays, closed.

However, more shops will close during the coming years than will open.

“We might open 50 but close 70,” he said. “There will be some areas where we’ve got too many shops or where the internet has really caught on fast.”

Longman said Tui would also be taking on shorter leases. “Half of our leases come up in the next five years.

“Generally, instead of 15 or 10-year leases with a 10 or seven-year break, we’ll be going for five or three-year leases with a three or one-year break.”

Tui also plans to step up training and aims to have an agent in every shop who has visited the main destinations.

It is also set to trial an incentive scheme for customers on holiday to book their next trip, with the sale being attributed back to the original agent.

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.