The Co-operative Travel
 | |
Former type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Travel |
| Fate | Bought out by Thomas Cook Group |
| Successor | Thomas Cook Retail |
| Founded | 2011 (2011) |
| Defunct | 2016 (2016) |
| Headquarters | Peterborough , United Kingdom |
| Products | Travel agent, tour operator |
| Owners | Thomas Cook Group (66.5% stake) The Co-operative Group (30% stake) Central England Co-operative (3.5% stake) |
| Website | www.cooptravel.co.uk/  |
TCCT Retail Limited, trading as The Co-operative Travel was a travel agent in the United Kingdom, run as a joint venture between the Thomas Cook Group, The Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative from 2011 until 2016. TCCT Retail was based at the Peterborough Business Park at Lynch Wood, Peterborough. It was a member of ABTA and held an ATOL licence; it also acted as an agent for licensed Tour Operators. The Co-operative Travel brand was also used by some independent retail co-operatives such as Midcounties Co-operative through their access to The Co-operative brand, and their use of the brand has continued.
In 2016, Thomas Cook completed a buy-out of The Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative's 33.5% shareholding. The website closed in 2017 and all existing bookings were transferred to Thomas Cook. During 2017–18 Thomas Cook rebranded its The Co-operative Travel branches to the Thomas Cook name.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Joint venture
2 Operations
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
History
A branch of The Co-operative Travel in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
The Co-operative Wholesale Society opened its first Excursion Department in 1905, to work with railways, steamers, and tour operators to get the best rates for co-operative society's excursions. In 1920, CWS arranged its first overseas excursion and published its first holiday guide. By the 1950s, the CWS Travel Service had become one of the five largest travel agencies in Britain and had begun to organise air travel for co-operative societies and their members.[1]
CWS Travel became known as Travelcare when the Co-operative Wholesale Society merged with Co-operative Retail Services in 2000 to form The Co-operative Group. The Co-operative Travel was formed by the integration of the Manchester-based Travelcare business with United Co-operatives' Co-op Travel subsidiary on the merger of the two societies in 2007.[2]
Joint venture
A branch of The Co-operative Travel in Roundhay, Leeds.
It was announced in 2010, that Co-op Group Travel 1 Ltd.[3] and Midlands Co-op Travel Ltd.[4] would merge with the retail branches of Thomas Cook. The joint venture did not include the latter's tour operating arm, which remained wholly within the Thomas Cook Group.[5] The new network was 66.5%-owned by Thomas Cook, 30%-owned by The Co-operative Group and 3.5%-owned by Central England Co-operative.[6] Both chains retained their own branding, except for the small number of Thomas Cook's Going Places shops which were rebranded as The Co-operative Travel. The partnership arrangement helped to retain the heritage and ethics of The Co-operative brand and to ensure the consistency of message.[7]
The merger included the Co-operative's home-working division, Future Travel Limited, trading as "The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors". These consultants worked from home, primarily by telephone, providing the same range of services as the High Street branches but for extended opening hours.[8]
In 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was given 45 working days to review whether to formally oppose the merger.[9] The Office of Fair Trading requested a referral from the European Commission and, in turn, referred the case to the Competition Commission in March 2011. In July 2011, it was announced that the Competition Commission raised no objections to the merger.[10] As a result of the merger, the business became part of the Thomas Cook Group.
In 2016 the Co-operative Group decided that having a minority stake in a travel business no longer fit with its strategy and said that it would exercise its option to quit the joint venture. Thomas Cook announced it would buy out the stakes owned by The Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative, taking full control of the retail network and rebranding the high street travel stores that operated under the Co-operative brand gradually during 2017–18.[11][12]
Despite its involvement in the joint venture, Central England Co-operative also operates a network of Co-operative Travel branches which are managed separately from Thomas Cook. This arises from the 2013 merger of the Midlands Co-operative Society who had joined the venture and the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society which continued to operate its travel branches independently.
Operations
The Co-operative Travel offered package holidays, city breaks, hotels, flights, cruises and skiing holidays to a wide range of destinations. Foreign exchange services were also available, including American Express traveller's cheques. The Co-operative Travel Cash Passport was issued by Travelex; travel insurance was underwritten by White Horse Insurance Ireland. All flights and flight-inclusive holidays were financially protected by the ATOL scheme.[13]
See also
- Co-operative Travel Trading Group
References
^ CWS Travel – Travel Brochure Archived 20 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine The Co-operative Group, 25 June 2013
^ Top UK co-ops agree merger terms BBC News, 17 February 2007 03:29 GMT
^ Incorporated in 2011 and registered in England and Wales under the Companies Act 1985, No. 7413801
^ Registered in England and Wales under the Companies Act 1985, No. 4132544
^ Landmark deal to create the UK’s largest travel retail network Archived 12 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine The Co-operative Group, 8 October 2010
^ Gosling, Paul What is the future of The Co-operative Travel? Co-operative News, 26 September 2013
^ The Co-operative Travel The Co-operative Group (retrieved 8 May 2013) Archived 11 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
^ Future Travel name to go in Co-op rebrand TTG Digital, 24 November 2010[dead link]
^ OFT to review planned Thomas Cook – Co-op Travel merger Daily Mail, 7 January 2011
^ Competition Commission approves Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel merger Travel Weekly, 21 July 2011
^ Jillian Ambrose (6 December 2016). "Thomas Cook to take over Co-op travel stores". The Telegraph..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Simon Gwynn (6 December 2016). "Co-operative Travel to disappear from high street as Thomas Cook confirms full takeover". Campaign. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
^ ATOL No. 6613
External links
- Co-op Membership
- Midcounties Co-op Travel
