NEWS THOMAS COOK RETAIL CONFERENCE 2015
Almost 500 Thomas Cook shop and cluster managers attended the group’s first retail conference for four years. Jennifer Morris reports from Antalya, Turkey
Cook managers and agents look around Side
Cook seeks new shop sites and renews customer focus
“Thomas Cook is back”. That was the message of the brand’s UK retail and customer experience director as the travel giant outlined plans for growth.
Among Kathryn Darbandi’s announcements were plans for Cook to acquire new sites for stores “for the first time in years” and to start three-times-a-week flights from Gatwick to Cape Town next winter. Darbandi was speaking
at Thomas Cook’s first retail conference in four years, which took place in Turkey last week.
Conference facts
WHERE: The Aska Lara Resort and Spa in Antalya, and Sentido Perissia, Side, Turkey ATTENDEES: 490 Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel retail managers SPEAKERS: Kathryn Darbandi, retail and customer experience director, UK & Ireland, and Chris Mottershead, managing director, UK & Ireland, both Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook has begun looking
“We are at that turning point now where engagement with our retail teams is absolutely critical”
“The conference has been
greatly missed,” said Darbandi. “The company has been through a turbulent time and it wasn’t top of the agenda – we needed to focus on getting back on track. “For me, we are at that turning point now where engagement and communication with our retail teams are absolutely critical.” Darbandi said the conference
was also the first time many of the managers had had a chance to get to know her and UK managing director Chris Mottershead. She said the conference was named ‘Time to shine’, because the business had “turned a corner”. “We are talking about growth and multiple new initiatives, and I think our people feel it’s that time as well,” she said.
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travelweekly.co.uk 26 November 2015
at locations in towns where it does not have a presence. “We haven’t opened new stores for a long time,” Darbandi said. “We will be looking at brand new sites.” Darbandi also said Thomas Cook
will be investing “several million” in the refurbishment of its real estate over the next 12 months, having refreshed 450 stores in the last two years. Despite unveiling a new
uniform across the Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel brands, Darbandi said there were plans to “pull the two apart a bit more” through differentiated product offering and window displays. Cook launched an inhouse
mantra – “Customer at our heart” – at the conference. And Darbandi said Cook was on
track with its plan to start making its “single customer view” concept of customer history available to all retail staff from April, while the Dreamcatcher initiative, whereby agents can earn commission if clients book via the company’s website, is still being piloted.
Darbandi insists cluster manager changes complete
Thomas Cook’s UK retail director said there are no more plans to reduce the number of cluster managers. The company confirmed
last week that 14 cluster and branch managers were taking compulsory redundancy as part of a management restructure. It had originally said up to 50 roles could go. Kathryn Darbandi (pictured) said: “That work has finished. The structure is in place and we’re very happy with it.” The restructure, which sees some cluster managers leading a combination of Thomas Cook and Co-op branches based on geography, means there are now 24 regional managers. “We don’t intend to make
any other changes to our store structures,” Darbandi added.
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