Midcounties Co-operative revamps its homeworking division

The group set up its PTA division two and a half years ago and now has 110 homeworkers.

The “brand refresh”, announced at the group’s annual conference this week, changes the name to The Personal Travel Agents and sees a new website unveiled, thepersonaltravelagents.co.uk.

The word ‘personal’ is handwritten to emphasise the service offered by its travel consultants and the new logo includes the wording “at Co-operative Travel”.

Sheena Darby, head of direct, with responsibility for PTAs and website, said: “The last two and a half years has been about building the business to a certain size and getting everything to work as it should.

“We’ve got a big opportunity to take this further and look at how we bring the concept of having a personal travel agent to everyday customers.”

The move follows research with 432 existing PTA customers and a panel of 100 UK residents.

This found that while existing clients enjoyed using agents they knew and trusted, 80% of the general public did not know what a personal travel agent was.

When this was explained, many assumed a travel homeworker would sell only luxury holidays and would charge. When told this was not the case, 40% of consumers surveyed said they would pay for this service.

Darby said: “Existing customers treat their PTA like a personal financial adviser or a personal trainer, but there was little understanding among people who had never booked with us.”