Thomas Cook, the travel tours company that has recently forced into collapse over financial issues is being taken over by its rival, Hays Travel. The acquisition of its new owners will save 555 Thomas Cook shops and would guarantee the jobs of more than 2,500 employees.
Hays Travel said the decision to acquire Thomas Cook is motivated by their need to establish a presence in areas where their presence is minimal, like Scotland and Wales. John Hays, the patriarch of the Company and the person who founded Hays Travel 40 years ago, said that it is in his high hopes that the Thomas Cook shop that they have purchased will open as soon as possible.
However, he said that reopening the foreclosed Thomas Cook shops would still be a hard slope to traverse as the negotiations now are with individual landlords. But, “it is certainly our intention to take on all the staff; to welcome them back,” he added.
The former Thomas Cook shops will now be branded under Hays’ company.
After the last-ditch efforts of both Thomas Cook and the U.K. Government to save the 178-year-old holiday firm from the compulsory liquidation that forces the Company to shut down, the firm met with its untimely foreclosure a few weeks ago.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced on September 26 that Thomas Cook would “cease trading” immediately, leaving more than 16,000 holidaymakers who have booked with the firm to go home on Monday stranded in their vacations. The government hopes to take at least 14,000 of them home through charted flights.
“Despite considerable efforts, those discussions have not resulted in an agreement between the Company’s stakeholders and proposed new money providers. The Company’s board has therefore concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect,” the firm said in a press release.
An application for the compulsory liquidation has been sent to the High Court and was immediately approved today. The Company is working with different relevant agencies in order to repatriate all affected customers.
