The story of Hays Travel's Thomas Cook takeover: 'new-found freedom' and 'leading from the front'

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."

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.”

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.”