Co-op Travel Will Close Shops in High-Street

Co-op Travel is set to ‘review’ the future if a fifth of its high street travel agencies because of overlap. Co-op Travel Managing director Mike Greenacre has confirmed that because of the merger between United Co-op and Travelcare, there will be an overlap of approximately 90 travel agencies in northern England.

The newly combined group will have 430 high-street shops and closures have not been ruled out. Greenacre added: “With other consolidation on the high-street there has been significant and severe cutbacks in the number of high-street agencies. It’s fair to assume that will continue because of this consolidation…like all retail businesses, we are constantly reviewing performance and the commerciality of being on the high-street.”

However, Greenacre went on to confirm that a radical overhaul of how the group’s travel agencies operate was already planned for the near future: “There are a number of plans we are reviewing strategically at the moment that will be rolled out at the back end of the year.” He added: “My personal view is there will be some kind of renaissance of those shops left on the high-street and there will be some kind of reinvention of the offer we make to customers.” Co-op have hinted at examples of maximising link ups between high-street shops, call centres and the Internet, but that above all, customer service and investment in staff would remain paramount to the success of shops.