Kanoo Travel Ltd, which had
seven travel agencies and nine foreign exchange offices around the UK, has
ceased trading.
The company, run from
Sheffield but with offices in London and Birmingham, reported losses of £421,000 on revenues of £5.3 million in 2019,
compared with revenues of £5.7 million and a loss of £53,000 in 2018.
It had both
retail and corporate businesses but in recent years had been shifting its focus
to the latter, which generated 87 per cent of its revenues in 2019. The company
said in its last annual return that as business had moved online “the fees and
margins we make are smaller than the offline bookings that we have done in the
past”.
Kanoo had recently moved out of its Oxford
Street office to a smaller space to serve corporate clients in 2019 in
order to drastically cut rent costs and had been working with its landlord to
reduce its footprint in Sheffield.
The company added that
the Covid-19 pandemic had made the market very uncertain. “Corporate travel will be affected
due to companies having travel bans and the increase in the use of conference
calls for meetings rather than travelling for face to face… The management team
of Kanoo Travel Limited will do everything in their power to protect the cash
position of the company.”
Director Maxwell Grosse left the company in May.
Kanoo Travel was launched in 1937 in Bahrain when the company provided refueling
facilities in Bahrain for Imperial Airways seaplanes travelling to India and
Australia. In 1947 Kanoo Travel became the first IATA agency in the Gulf. It employs more
than 1,400 people in the Middle East. The parent company is not affected by the
demise of the UK operation.
Kanoo Travel UK had been part of American Express GBT's travel partner network. The TMC said in a statement, "GBT is aware that Kanoo Travel UK has ceased operations. Kanoo Travel Middle East is not affected and continues to service GBT clients as normal."
Kerry Cadet of Quantuma has been appointed as administrator for the business.
A number of TMCs have ceased trading during the pandemic, including Baxter Hoare, Business Travel by STA, Thornton's and Horncastle Executive Travel.