Great news but the way I read it is that Hays only have a 6 months 'lease' on the shops whilst they 'negotiate' rents with Landlords.
I hope they don't send our Brexit 'team' in..

I would have thought that the main asset which they have bought will be the customer accounts.

What geographical area do Hays cover at the moment? In Scotland the only chain of independent travel agents AFAIK is Barrhead Travel.

The reason Hays "won" the race to take over the shops over others such as Barrhead and Midcounties Co-op is that they were prepared to take ALL the shops, rather than just a few. (At least that's according to various news outlets I've seen). The implication is that Hays will probably try to re-let or surrender the leases on the few shops they don't want.

379m turnover and 10m profit is the takeaway for me....Hope this doesn't sink the poor Hays family if it turns sour and they have gotten someone in to do some due diligence for them.

The Hays family don't strike me as 'poor'.
Less than 0.3% profit seems a bit 'iffy' to me so maybe they are just taking a big gamble that having an extra 150% of shops will boost that.
I wish them good luck.

Looks bonkers decision by Hays..more and more doing internet and they buy a load more shops.....On the other hand they may have a `very cunning plan`..only time will tell.

I hope they do have a cunning plan , buying the part that sunk Thomas Cook seems crazy idea.
If Tui , Jet2 etc reduce commission to agents Hays travel will soon find themselves in the sh**.
Could we see the start up of a new airline to service the old TC routes ?

Did the shops really sink Thomas Cook (shops only selling TCX package holidays) or was it part of a failing business deemed not needed under so much debt ? Good luck to Hays , Local North East company who must see past the internet to take this journey on.

I don’t think it was really the shops that sunk Thomas Cook, it was the amount of debt (specifically buying Airtours for £1.3b) was the major issue. The shops probably didn’t materially help, but they weren’t the cause.

Referring to TUI and Jet2 reducing commissions, both discount online with TUI not being able to be matched by an agent against the online price. Jet2 also give an online discount and if the agent matches it, they make about 4%. With easyJet Holidays going to be sold through agents, plus agents now being able to book On The Beach (albeit in different branding), I dont see why it should be a problem. Most independents wont book TUI as a first choice anyway now.

It is a massive gamble, but they have done this in the past on a smaller scale buying Bath Travel which by all means was successful.

Hays have their own tour operation using various airlines for long haul as well as short haul too which has been very successful for them as has cruise and stay holidays. They know what they are doing and wouldn't put anything at risk, they have not had to finance this by debt which is another bonus too.

Very true TravelAgent, they seem to have taken the mantle of where Bath Travel took off in the south. Although they haven’t had to finance it, the stores are going to have to pay their way in the long run.

Those who work for Hays up in the N.E cannot praise him enough for what he does for his staff , Certainly a rarity in this day and age and long may it continue i wish his new venture and ex Thomas Cook staff the very best of luck.

Odd website to use if you just want to look around their Hayes offerings.
Gave up after 5 mins. Needs work - or a visit to a Hayes shop?

I read a comment that because Hays don't own an airline / cruise ships / hotels, it will allow them to be "nimble" in how they go about their business, presumably meaning directing customers towards packages that provide satisfaction to all parties. Perhaps having expertise in the the business you run is about to come back in fashion.

I would imagine not having their own airline, cruise ships, hotels etc Hays are in an excellent position to negotiate deals from various companies especially as they've taken on the TC shops.

TUI's reputation seems to be going downhill (through no fault of their own) due to the 737 Max issues.

Free of the legacy Thomas Cook debts, it's a clean slate for these stores and the next 6 months will give them a chance to prove their viability. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the old Thomas Cook store in the Trafford Centre: it's on the same floor as, and within a few doors of, the TUI and Virgin Holidays stores, however it'll be interesting to see what deal Hays can negotiate with the landlord there given that empty units in the Trafford Centre don't stay empty for long.

Good luck to Hays with taking on these stores. I don't expect all of them to stay open due to some of them only being doors away from existing Hays Travel stores, but it's a big vote of confidence in the High Street to be taking on a large amount of real estate in a time when most others are retreating. I do hope many of the former store staff who are yet to find work are taken on again.

Many blamed the shops for dragging the rest of the group down. The really is that TCG imploded under debt from a series of acquisitions. Its happened time and again, Swissisr being one of the most famous, but House of Fraiser are another example. The difficulty in an integrated model like TCG no-one can truly tell which part of the business pays for marketing, IT, HR, Training, H&S, etc. It's not even that easy to tell where the money is coming from. If someone buys a Thomas Cook Airlines flight via a TC store how do you allocate the revenue? An industry-standard commission structure, perhaps? But if that store didn't exist would the passenger have booked with TCX, or ended up on Virgin, for example?

Hopefully Hays can make a go of this, the scale of expansion is huge. Apparently 55 stores will open today. Thats a huge sumner of stores to open in one day, with a defunct brand and no Thomas Cook product to sell. I assume they paid next-to-nothing for the travel agent business, essentially they are taking over the leases. There is no mention of being able to use the Thomas Cook brand or TUPE of staff.

Thomas Cook Stores did sell substantially more 3rd party product than TUI does, so there is less of a transition than one might think as many of the suppliers will be familiar.

There won't be a TUPE issue - the staff were not taken with the shops.

Someone asked about the aircraft in the Hangar in Manchester. The A330 (OY-VKH) currently in maintenance is due to be scrapped in hangar as the receiver is not prepared to pay the insurance to have the work carried out.