Accounts recently released at Companies House for TCCT Retail Ltd – which owns the Thomas Cook, Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative store network – and Tui Retail UK Ltd show the tough environment both continue to face in their shops and online.
TCCT swung to an operating loss of £9.6 million for the year ended September 30, 2015, from a profit of £26.6 million in the prior year. Revenue declined by 1.9% to £311 million.
TCCT continues to struggle under the weight of so-called exceptional items. This year the company attributed £4 million to “retail network restructuring and shop closure costs” (down from £8 million in 2014). In total these exception items amounted to £23.4 million, down from £28 million in 2014.
Tui’s operating profit stayed the same at £4 million, but revenue fell from £203 million to £199 million during the same financial period.
The directors of the company admitted that this was because more people were using the internet to arrange their holidays.
“Trading has declined this year. Despite an increase in passengers for the UK business, the proportion of bookings that are made through the retail channel has declined as clients increasingly book their holidays online, and this is reflected in the 2% decrease in revenue,” they said.
The accounts also show that the number of retail shops in the Tui network was cut from 655 to 622.
A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said that there were currently 808 stores in the network (compared with 830 in September 2015).
Despite the gradual decline in numbers, the company’s UK director of retail and customer experience, Kathryn Darbandi, said in November last year that Thomas Cook would look to open stores in certain locations.
Thomas Cook and the two Co-operatives came together in 2011 through the formation of the infamous retail joint venture.
