SPECIAL REPORT stop-sell and continues to eye expansion. Lucy Huxley talks to co-owners John and Irene Hays


Company plans ‘war chest’ for potential acquisitions


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he UK’s largest independent agency is looking to take out its first-ever loan as a “war


chest” for possible acquisitions. Hays Travel managing director


John Hays said the Covid-19 crisis had not diminished the company’s desire to further expand the business. Asked if he and his co-owner


and wife Irene Hays were looking at acquiring any more companies at a time when many could be struggling, he said: “I don’t want to predict, but clearly there’s obvious financial distress out there. “We’ve already had Shearings fail,


and there will probably be others, especially where companies are highly leveraged and have big debts. So the landscape will be different.” Chairman Irene Hays added: “I don’t think we’re behaving any


Former Thomas Cook shops will continue to be opened as planned


Hays Travel has “no plans to stop or stall” its schedule of opening former Thomas Cook shops in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The agency became the UK’s


largest retailer when it acquired the leases for the entire Cook retail network of 553 stores after the company collapsed last September. Faced with the impact of


the Covid-19 pandemic, Hays will however be renegotiating rents on the premises and taking up an extension on the date by which it could walk away from


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some leases without incurring costs, and possibly look to extend it further. Director Irene Hays said “I’ve just


signed off the rental agreements for a further eight” ex-Cook shops, and that replacement signage was going up every week. She added: “At this point in time, we do not have any plans to stop or stall that process.” John Hays added: “We don’t regret making the decision but, obviously, we need to keep re-evaluating things. At this moment in time, in terms of shop closures or anything of that nature, there’s nothing specific.”


We’re still looking


to grow [so] we feel we need to make plans to have rolling credit facilities in place


differently. As you can imagine, we’re having lots of approaches; we always have had. But at the minute, the prices might be a bit different. So we might look a bit more closely.” John Hays added: “We’re


still looking to grow if the right opportunity comes along. We feel we need to make plans to have rolling credit facilities in place should we need it, which we’re advanced on doing. We might not need it, but we want it as a cushion. “You asked about acquisitions,


so in terms of having a war chest, it could be interesting for us.” Asked if they would be interested


in businesses outside of retail, Irene Hays said: “Yes, we’re very open-minded. As we grow the Hays Travel tour operation, it becomes obvious there are niche businesses that would be very attractive to us.” John Hays added: “The world has


changed. One thing we have done since the crisis is try and take more control of our own destiny. We’ve always had our own tour operation and we’re doing more ourselves because it’s in our hands and we’re not dependent on third parties.” Irene Hays said the company had


completed an 18-month forecast which “is not very pretty”. But she added: “We don’t think we’re going to be the worst around, and we’re taking all reasonable steps.”


Hays credits ‘unbelievable staff’ for £1.8m savings and revenue boost


Staff ideas to cut costs and generate revenue have helped Hays Travel save £1.8 million so far since the UK lockdown. John and Irene Hays received


more than 1,000 suggestions from their 5,000 staff for how to save money as soon as it became clear the impact Covid-19 was going to have on the business. Irene Hays said: “We have


some incredibly bright, sound people in Hays Travel and we took early steps to seek their advice on the sorts of things we should be doing to reduce costs.


“Some ideas were relatively


small, such as ‘stop cleaning the windows as frequently’ or ‘stop paying to have free milk in our shops’. But other people asked if we could renegotiate contracts with suppliers, and our supply team were just astonishing.” She said the company had


also saved money by reducing salaries. “It’s difficult because of the size of the salary bill,” she added. “But we have so much talent, and they give us ideas every single week. They talk to us. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?”


4 JUNE 2020


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