Rival to keep Thomas Cook travel stores open in UK
Hays Travel will buy all of Thomas Cook’s British travel agent shops, potentially saving up to 2,500 jobs.
Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel company whose shops have been a feature of British town centres for generations, collapsed last month, stranding tens of thousands of passengers as its UK business went into liquidation.
Hays Travel will buy all 555 stores as part of a deal brokered by insolvency advisers KPMG, and the privately-owned travel firm will look to re-employ former employees from Thomas Cook’s retail operations.
“We’re a successful business and because we’re independent and offer all tour operators, then we are optimistic that we will trade well ... in all of the shops,” said founder John Hays after the deal.
Thomas Cook collapsed after it became unable to service its debts and failed to convince banks to back a rescue plan in the face of changing customer habits and intense competition from low-cost airlines and internet companies.
It had created the largest chain of travel agents in Britain. The 40-year-old firm based in the north-east of England reached sales of more than £1bn (€1.1bn) in 2018.
“The death of the high street travel agent is a question we’ve been asked for many years, but we feel we do something different to other high street travel agents,” said Mr Hays.
Hays Travel currently operates just 190 of its own branches across the UK, employing 1,900 people.
