Hays Travel North West has seen 16% year-on-year revenue rise of 16%, and a rise in average booking values.
The 34-agency chain, 40% owned by Hays Travel, has grown from 29 shops in January 2018.
Like for like revenue is up 7% year-on-year.
He said average booking values had increased by about £100 to just under £1,000 against a year ago, but that margins are “just about identical” – suggesting higher net costs.
Saturday January 12 was a record sales day for the miniple, which used to be called Just Go before the Hays deal in 2014.
“We had anticipated that margins would go down a little bit, especially with Thomas Cook dropping price parity,” said Birhcam. “But margins seem to be broadly in line with last year.”
He said that Thomas Cook’s decision to offer some holidays cheaper direct on its website had caused “no real issues” but noted that Thomas Cook’s prices had risen, leading to a “shift towards Tui and Jet2holidays”, adding: “Jet2holidays seems to be the main beneficiary.”
Bircham also said discounting hadn’t been as widespread as he’d anticipated in a peaks season where news is dominated by the uncertainty around the UK’s departure from the European Union.
“Our margins would suggest that [discounting] is in line with last year. The thing that’s really exciting is that average booking values are going up.”
Hays Travel North West plans more than 40 shops by the end of 2019 and hopes to reach its target of 50 in 2020.
It has three openings in the pipeline, in Macclesfield in mid-February, Northwich in early March and Oldham in early May.