Holiday company Hays Travel is set to expand its network of shops around the 海角视频 on the back of bumper bookings.
The Sunderland firm, which was set in motion 44 years ago from a single shop in County Durham, chalked up transaction values of 拢2bn last year as latent demand following the pandemic saw holidaymakers flock to the firm鈥檚 shops to book sunshine destinations.
The business now has 470 retail branches alongside its website, and saw revenues rocket from 拢219.4m to 拢423.5m in its 2023 financial year. Chair Dame Irene Hays says the company is gearing up for a busy 2024, buoyed by additional capacity from Tui, Jet2 and eayJet and the addition of numerous cruise ships.
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And as it toasts its busiest time of the time, the company is now looking to expand its network of shops by revisting areas where it stopped trading three years ago, following a review of its portfolio. In January 2021, Hays Travel announced the closure of 89 shops across the 海角视频 after the pandemic brought the travel industry to a virtual standstill. The firm had been planning a review of its retail portfolio after taking on some 550 shops when it acquired Thomas Cook in October 2019, but it deferred closure decisions to see if business returned.
When a third lockdown and travel ban was announced, forcing tour operators to suspend and cancel flights and holidays, Hays Travel said it was forced to take the decisive action.
Dame Irene confirmed the company is now taking a fresh look at the regions where closures were made.
She said: 鈥淎fter the acquisition of Thomas Cook in 2019 we had the opportunity to look at how each of the stores in the Thomas Cook estate was performing. Eleven weeks after the acquisition we went into the scenario where we couldn鈥檛 sell a holiday, and we were refunding customers for many of those that had been booked. That meant that we were taking decisions about closing shops in that climate, so we鈥檝e now recovered that position and are reviewing some of the locations where, by necessity, in order to save the staff, we decided to divest ourselves of some of the shops.
鈥淲ere we in the situation where we are today, those decisions may not have been taken. We鈥檙e going back and revisiting those parts of the country where we have a gap. The strategy is very much on where we can get critical mass in terms of management and marketing. The best thing for us is to have a cluster of shops closer together, so that optimises regional marketing.
鈥淗ays Travel is passionate about regionalism, about lobbying our airports for more regional flights, and about contributing to the communities where we operate - we鈥檙e not just interested in the bottom line - so we believe in local and regional. That means that when we鈥檙e taking acquisition and organic growth, we look at the region, the offer at that airport, what the catchment area is. There鈥檚 much written about the demise of the high street and the demise of retail - but clearly we are seeing significant growth.鈥
Last year the business made three acquisitions 鈥 Just Go with 45 shops, Travel House which added 16 shops, and a group of three in Lincolnshire 鈥 and Dame Irene said more acquisitions could follow. She added that while some business owners have approached Hays Travel looking to retire, cost pressures are motivating others.
Dame Irene added: 鈥淭ravel is a thin margin business. It鈥檚 incredibly difficult if you don鈥檛 have the volume to make that business model work. They still need to be able to pay their suppliers, to have negotations with partners, and to make that work in a small organisation creates a very high overhead. The combination of debts, high overheads, together with rent and rates in some places has encouraged some people to come to us. That and the fact we鈥檝e got a reputation of looking after our people.鈥
