Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
High streets will not just survive.. they can thrive
Hays couple say shops have a future
THE couple who saved 555 stores hit by the Thomas Cook collapse insist the high street can thrive.
John and Irene Hays say their decision to buy up every one of the failed travel giant’s shops was based on their belief that our town centres have a future.
The couple, who run the country’s biggest independent holiday firm Hays Travel which had 190 existing stores, have vowed to have as many shops – if not more – in five years’ time as now.
Irene, who is chairman of the group, said: “We are committed to the high street.”
But she said more must be done to lure visitors to shopping hubs with live music and special events, and with empty stores turned into pop-up galleries or venues for activities such as table tennis.
She said the couple got thousands of messages of support from members of the public after their job-saving move.
She said: “They’ve gone, this is a wake-up call, it’s up to us to spend money in our high street and support them as best we can.
“We need to stop moaning about it, go out and support it – that’s what they’re saying.”
The couple welcome the Mirror’s High Street Fightback campaign, with our demands from improving public transport to ensuring online retailers pay their fair share of business rates.
About 50 of the Thomas Cook stores bought by the couple are near existing Hays branches and could potentially close, but the firm has pledged to redeploy all staff. John, 70, said “there is opportunity for more than 50 [branches] to be added” in the next five years. He added: “We do think the high street has a future and there’s a future for face-to-face interaction. Take our cruises – very little gets booked online and also long-haul and travelling to more exotic places.” Sunderland-based Hays has already reopened 210 former Thomas Cook branches and offered over 2,000 staff new jobs.
Among them are branch workers Gemma Critchlow, 35, and Nicola Callaghan, 42, who said it was a huge relief to find her job had been saved.