05/22/2012 (press release: Online PR) // Oxfordshire, UK // Dan Adey
Ben Reid, chief executive of The Midcounties Co-operative, is to be presented with an Outstanding Contribution Award by the travel industry.
The honour, nominated and voted on by leading figures in the sector, is in recognition of his contribution over many years to the development and growth of travel retailing.
The award will be presented on Monday 26 March as part of the annual Agent Achievement Awards at the Lancaster Hotel in London.
The prestigious Awards, organised by e.tid.com, the travel and hospitality industry digest, attract many of the top performing travel agents in the United Kingdom.
Ben said: “I’ve always found travel an exciting, and challenging, business to work in. There is a continual need to innovate to stay ahead. To be nominated by your peers is very special and I thank them for it.”
John McEwan, chairman of ABTA and a member of the judging panel, said: “Ben’s contribution to the development of travel retailing, constantly exploring new ways to serve the customer, has been sustained over many years. He’s a worthy winner.”
Ben entered travel when he joined the Ilkeston Co-op 30 years ago as its accountant. From there he assisted in setting up Co-op Travel at the Leicestershire Co-op and then created it at West Midlands Co-op.
While with West Midlands he joined with then colleague John Donnelly to create the highly successful Holiday Hypermarkets, later bought by First Choice.
Under Ben’s leadership, West Midlands Co-op went on to develop the Co-op Travel Ultra store concept, high street branches with a range of innovative customer-friendly technologies. Pioneering at the time, they won a clutch of regional business and national Travel industry awards.
Parallel to working on the Holiday Hypermarket concept, Ben worked with Mike Greenacre to develop Co-operative Travel Ltd, which eventually grew into CTTG (the Co-operative Travel Trading Group), a significant voice for the independent travel sector right up to the point at which the recent joint venture with Thomas Cook was formed.
As The Midcounties Co-operative has opted not to join with Thomas Cook the latest task is to recreate Co-op Travel as a vibrant sustainable Travel brand.
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Notes to Editors
About the Midcounties Co-operative
The Midcounties Co-operative has its headquarters in Warwickshire, with trading outlets in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and the surrounding counties.
The Society’s trading groups are food retail, funeral, travel, pharmacy, childcare nurseries, employee benefits and energy. The Midcounties Co-operative is the largest independent co-operative society in the UK and has more than 470 branches, and 245,000 active trading members. It is in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies To Work For list for the second year running.
The Society’s mission statement is ‘To be a successful consumer co-operative working towards creating a better, fairer world, and to enhance the lives of our colleagues, members, customers, and the communities we serve’.
About Co-operative Travel
Co-operative Travel offer a variety of holidays, flights and hotels. They are providers of all inclusive holidays, cheap ski holidays for that winter break or holidays to turkey for some summer sun.
The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives, highlighting the contribution of co-operatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration. The Year will highlight the strengths of the co-operative business model as an alternative means of doing business and furthering socio-economic development.
For more information, please contact:
Dan Adey
Dan.adey@cooptravel.co.uk
01922 700048
Visit: http://www.cooptravel.co.uk/
Social Media Tags:all inclusive holidays, cheap ski holidays, holidays to turkey, Co-op Travel
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