Shop for holidays at Morrisons & Waterstone’s

Forward-thinking travel company First Choice has unveiled its latest plan to expand its retail network by linking up with supermarket giants Morrisons and the UK’s leading bookseller, Waterstone’s.

First Choice is planning to open new Travel Pods, Travel Shops and Foreign Exchange Bureaus in these two giants of the retail industry by February – adding two new players to its already bulging portfolio of retail partners, which includes Sainsbury’s and Asda.

This February we will open a new Travel Pod in Waterstone’s Birmingham New Street and three Travel Pods in Morrisons – Wellington, Newark and Norwich. In addition to the travel pods we will open two shops in Morrisons – Felixstowe next month and Liverpool Speke by July plus two Foreign Exchange Bureau’s at Guiseley Leeds and Stoke.

Travel Pods were a new initiative launched by First Choice last year following a unique idea by the company’s Retail Managing Director, Cheryl Powell, who thought of the concept as she stopped to get her nails done at a portable nail bar.

Following this idea, First Choice developed the futuristic and revolutionary Travel Pods with concessions in Asdas and Sainsbury’s.

The pods are easily portable and brochure-free units, which measure around 270 sq ft and the beauty about them is that they can be easily moved to another area of the store or even location.

Cheryl Powell said: “We are delighted to announce that we have signed an agreement with Morrisons and Waterstone’s to enable us to open up more Travel Pods, Travel Shops and bureaus in these areas.

“We have recently opened 41 shop equivalents and will open a further 14 shops by April 2007. In addition to our new shops we have added 56 First Choice Partners “franchise” shops to our estate - this new partnership is another example of how we can broaden the retail network even further.”