limited a co operative travel employee type joint venture industry retail headquarters peterborough united kingdom products travel agent tour operator owners thomas cook group 70 % stake the co operative group 30 % stake website co operativetravel.co.uk the co operative travel is 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 . tcct retail is based at the thomas cook business park in peterborough . it is a member of abta and holds an atol licence ; it also acts as an agent for licensed tour operators . customers can earn a share of the profits in proportion to purchases through the co op membership scheme . the brand is also used by independent retail co operatives through their access to the co operative brand . contents 1 history 1.1 joint venture 1.2 other users of the brand 2 operations 2.1 membership 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit 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 edit 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 does not include the latter s tour operating arm which remains wholly within the thomas cook group . 5 the new network is 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 retain 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 has 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 work 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 . other users of the brand edit the midcounties co operative travel branches which also trade as the co operative travel are not included in the joint venture . despite its own 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 edit the co operative travel offers package holidays city breaks hotels flights cruises and skiing holidays to a wide range of destinations . foreign exchange services are also available including american express traveller s cheques . the co operative travel cash passport is issued by travelex ; travel insurance is underwritten by white horse insurance ireland . all flights and flight inclusive holidays are financially protected by the atol scheme . 11 membership edit members of the co operative group central england co operative and other participating regional societies earn one membership point for every 2.00 spent at the co operative travel . points are converted into dividend at a rate agreed annually by the board . 12 see also edit co operative travel trading group references edit cws travel travel brochure 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 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 future travel name to go in co op rebrand ttg digital 24 november 2010 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 atol no. 6613 the co operative membership the co operative group retrieved 27 august 2013 external links edit official website the co operative personal travel advisors v t e thomas cook group brands thomas cook holidays airtours direct holidays manos style holidays flexible trips club 18 30 cresta cruise thomas cook hotels4u.com mytravel sentido hotels and resorts the cruise store thomas cook signature thomas cook sports elegant resorts airlines thomas cook airlines thomas cook airlines belgium thomas cook airlines scandinavia condor airlines high street travel agents thomas cook the co operative travel joint venture branch network key people thomas cook founder thomas middelhoff chairman michael beckett deputy chairman website www.thomascookgroup.com v t e the co operative group retail the co operative food the co operative travel 30 % holding the co operative funeralcare the co operative bank 20 % holding smile the co operative insurance co operative legal services the co operative electrical wholesale federal and retail trading services former crtg the co operative brand people richard pennycook chief executive allan leighton chair headquarters cis tower 1 angel square at noma manchester former the co operative banking group former cfs britannia the co operative pharmacy co operative travel trading group the co operative motor group the co operative farms associated co operative creameries co operative retail services retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title the co operative travel & oldid 727345878 categories cooperativesthe co operative group navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 28 june 2016 at 11 04 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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