The inside story of Hays Travel's Thomas Cook takeover: 'new-found freedom' and 'leading from the front'
Edward RobertsonDespite the months of speculation that preceded the collapse of Thomas Cook, it was nonetheless still a profoundly shocking moment for the UK travel industry.
Cook failed during the early hours of 23 September 2019, leaving thousands of passengers stranded overseas and a workforce scrambling to establish what their futures looked like.
Among them were thousands of members of Cook’s retail staff, whose workplaces up and down the country were shuttered overnight. Many had worked for Cook for years – some their entire careers.
A fortnight later, on 9 October 2019, Hays Travel acquired Cook’s entire retail estate – some 555 stores – preserving or creating employment opportunities for some 2,500 former staff.
Some five years on, and with the small matter of a global pandemic now thankfully in the rear-view mirror, Hays has now been back in the black for the past three years after its profits for its 2023/24 financial jumped by 43%.
TTG caught up with four members of Hays staff at its recent retail conference in Turkey’s Belek to explore their experience of those fateful days five years ago.
'Hays wanted us to be there for our customers'
Caroline Jones (pictured left), who is now the manager of Hays Travel’s Weston Favell branch, had been working for Cook for 15 years and was branch manager of the same store as part of a six-strong team.
"It was really shocking – we were hoping it wasn’t going to happen," she recalled. “How we found out was the worst part; to see it break on the news and not have any communication from the company about what was happening was hard.”
Jones was delighted with the 9 October rescue deal, which saw her entire team get their jobs back – and allowed them to reopen their shop straight away.
“Irene and John [Hays] were very clear they wanted our presence for our customers, even if we couldn’t book holidays, just so they could come in a talk to us so we could reassure them and help them with any processes to claim their money back," she added.
“It was really important to be in the store. When I went to hand over the keys the day after the news broke, all the customers were just stood outside the door – it was heartbreaking as there was no support for them.”
'Being a third-party agent was new to us'
Kim Lock (pictured right), who managed a store in Aberdeen and worked for Cook for five years prior to the failure, said she was also impressed by how quickly Hays got things up and running again.
Lock went from being unemployed to working for Hays and serving her customer base in the space of a week, and was equally impressed by how quickly the agency reacted to the next crisis to hit the UK travel industry – the pandemic.
“When the pandemic struck, I was working from home by the next day – the operation is so slick," she said.
Lock added she also discovered a new-found freedom following the Hays takeover as she was no longer bound by the directional selling that had been a vital part of Thomas Cook’s business model as a vertically integrated tour operator with an agency chain.
“Being a third-party travel agent was new,” Lock said. “It opened up so much more product and made the job so much more interesting. The world is our oyster now, and we can book so many different things – it doesn’t matter who it's with so long as we get the booking."
'Us managers are now there to lead from the front'
Linda Stewart (pictured left), who manages Hays Travel Coleraine, started her career in travel with Thomas Cook in 1992 and also joined Hays as part of the rescue.
She too is now enjoying the freedom that has come with the move away from directional selling, which she said was allowing staff focus on the customer again while driving sales growth.
Having been a manager under the Cook regime, she was focused on staff, not selling, and she said she was pleased to see how her role has changed under the new management as she once again hit the shop floor.
Stewart added: “I have noticed a big change as the managers are there to lead from the front; we have the same sort of targets as staff, so there is a big focus on driving sales and driving profit.”
'It was a good thing to refresh me'
Netty Sharman (pictured right), who now manages the Stowmarket branch she joined in 2000, agreed the switch had been a good one, especially since it brought new energy to both her and the company.
She said: “When you have a new focus and a whole new leadership team, it was a good thing to refresh me and bring me back up to the demands of the modern day travel industry.”
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