NEWS THE INTERVIEW
THE FACTS
O Hays Travel acquired the licence to occupy all 555 Thomas Cook shops
O Hays has paid the rent up to the next quarter date (December 24) and paid rent arrears for the previous quarter (up to September 30)
Q. Will you recruit any of Tomas Cook’s senior leadership team? A.We have got an excellent senior management team here. I have reassured them that it isn’t the plan to bring senior people in. I have got real faith in their quality. Before the announcement went out, I told them we would need extra jobs [100 more in Hays’ Sunderland HQ], but that we were going to bolster the existing team. We have already recruited area managers, in places such as Kent, Essex, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Te area managers then go to their branch managers who contact their teams in a ripple effect. Recruitment has been huge. We need [area managers] basically everywhere, except for the northeast, northwest and the south coast, where we already have a strong presence.
Q. Some commentators put Cook’s failure down to it having too many high street shops – you have even more. What do you think of that? A.Te differentiation is that we are already increasing the number of high street stores while others
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aren’t. Tat, and excellent customer service. But that alone is not enough. We live in a digital world. We know that approximately two-thirds of people who book in our stores have engaged with us digitally. If you asked a Tomas Cook employee if the web was their best friend, they would say no. Tere was a price difference online where it would be cheaper than booking in a shop. Te web was their enemy, whereas if you asked a Hays Travel agent they would say the web is their friend. We have a very different strategy to Tomas Cook and I’m optimistic and confident for the future. People are asking a lot of the same questions as six years ago, when we acquired 58 branches [of Bath Travel]. Te presence on the south coast has grown to approximately 78 stores now. Te death of the high street travel agent is a question we’ve been asked before, but we do something different.
Q.What about the duplication of stores? A.Where we have an overlap, where we have underperforming shops, we
will do what any business would do – and have a look at them. [But] we have no plans to close any [of the 555 former Cook shops]. We will cross that bridge when we come to it and engage with our staff as and when, if that happens. If we did make any changes, we would do it with a full consultation with our colleagues.
Q.How does it feel to surpass Tui’s retail network? A.A bit surreal, but it’s a nice feeling.
Q. Some Cook shops were losing money. Can you turn them around? A.Te appeal of our deal to the Official Receiver [liquidators] was that we took the whole operation. In layman’s terms, we took the rough with the smooth. We are very confident these will work for us economically.
Q. Did you consider buying the Tomas Cook brand?
A.No. I think it’s tainted. Our brand is a fresh, new positive brand. Tomas Cook has been iconic, but it’s been very badly damaged.
O It is up to each landlord whether or not to accept Hays’ offer, at the same rent Thomas Cook paid
O Landlords can still apply for forfeiture of the lease or do a deal with a different retailer, agency or otherwise
O By Tuesday, 186 former Thomas Cook shops had reopened as Hays Travel
O Independent agencies such as Midcounties Co- operative, Barrhead Travel, Millington Travel, Polka Dot Travel, Tailor Made Travel and Hays Independence Group member Miles Morgan Travel had expressed their interests in the former Cook shops
O 49 former Thomas Cook shops are within 100 metres of an existing Hays Travel branch
17 OCTOBER 2019
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