Tui retail shake-up brings new shops and closures

Posted on 2 September, 2011 by Spacejunkie2

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.

Union ‘not consulted’ about Cook Co-op merger

Posted on 19 August, 2011 by Spacejunkie2

Union ‘not consulted’ about Cook Co-op merger

Aug 19, 2011 07:00AM GMT

The trade union representing staff at the Co-operative Group has expressed dismay at the company’s failure to consult it ahead of receiving Competition Commission clearance for the travel retail merger with Thomas Cook.

The Commission gave a final go-head to the deal to merge The Co-operative Travel, Midlands Co-operative and Thomas Cook retail division on Tuesday, after announcing provisional clearance on July 21.

The deal will see the creation of a new joint venture with more than 1,200 shops and in excess of 9,000 staff. It will be run and majority-owned by Thomas Cook, with most of the 9,000 staff from Cook and the Co-ops required to transfer employment.

Shop workers’ union USDAW said it had no warning that the announcement was imminent.

USDAW national officer Sharon Ainsworth said: “We have concerns about whether stores will have to shut and we are not happy about the fact we don’t know more.

“The Co-op did not consult us and that is unusual. I deal with the company day to day and the unions were not told.”

The Co-operative Travel head office employees at Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, and in Manchester will face a choice between a transfer within the Co-op, a move to Thomas Cook headquarters in Peterborough or redundancy.

Ainsworth said: “Everything has been on hold since the merger was referred to the Competition Commission. There have been no talks. We had expected a decision in October, so the announcement was quite a shock.

She said the Co-operative Group had now agreed to a meeting with union officials.

Both the Co-operative Group and Thomas Cook have declined to give details of the joint venture and staff-transfer process ahead of consulting staff, but the process is likely to begin within six weeks.

Thomas Cook staff are represented by a separate union – the transport union TSSA.

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

Posted on 17 August, 2011 by Spacejunkie2

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.