The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Staff jobs rescued as Hays buys Thomas Cook stores
Travel: Lifeline for up to 2,500 workers with some shops to open this week
One of the UK’s largest travel agents has said it will save thousands of jobs at Thomas Cook after a deal to buy all 555 of its stores around the UK.
Hays Travel has already employed 597 Thomas Cook workers since the 178-year-old travel group went out of business on September 23.
It now intends to reopen some shops as early as today, potentially saving up to 2,500 jobs.
It also promised to create another 100 jobs at its Sunderland headquarters.
Husband and wife team Irene and John Hays said their firm had burned the midnight oil, signing the deal to buy the shops at 11.53pm on Tuesday.
Mr Hays said: “We are looking to employ as many Thomas Cook staff as possible and we are reaching out to them.”
The shops will be rebranded with the Hays name and the company will consider the future of under-performing shops in places where Hays and Thomas Cook sites overlap. Thomas Cook’s collapse left around 150,000 passengers stranded abroad, the last of whom were returned to the UK on Monday.
“This is an extremely positive outcome, and we are delighted to have secured this agreement,” said Jim Tucker, a KPMG partner who was appointed joint special manager of Thomas Cook’s retail division after the failure.
“It provides reemployment opportunities for a significant number of former Thomas Cook employees, and secures the future of retail sites up and down the UK high street.”
He added: “We are pleased to have achieved this in a short timeframe and in the context of a complex liquidation process, which is testament to a lot of hard work from a number of parties.”
Labour shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said: “While Thomas Cook workers will breathe a sigh of relief, there are serious questions to be answered over why the company was allowed to collapse when it could have been saved.”