The boss of the UK’s largest independent chain of travel agents expects it to get even bigger as a result of Thomas Cook’s merger with The Co-operative Travel.
John Hays is managing director of Hays Travel, now the single biggest independent agency in the country following Friday’s announcement that the Co-operative Travel’s 401 shops would soon be majority-owned by Thomas Cook.
His mostly northeastern agency currently consists of 43 retail shops, 300 homeworkers, three call centres and the Hays Independence Group which has 160 retailer members.
However, Hays believes the chain will soon become bigger as agents working for the previously independent Co-operative or who were part of its Freedom consortium opt to leave the merged group.
“Independent retailers want to be part of an independent group so obviously the Freedom Travel Group is going to be part of a vertically integrated operator,” he said.
“We see opportunities for independent retailers wanting to be part of an independent chain and the same is true of homeworkers.
“The main reason for homeworkers joining us (from other companies) is concerns over directional selling.”
While Hays admitted to being surprised by the announcement, he said he felt both companies would benefit from it.
“I didn’t see it coming but now it has been done I think it is a clever move,” he said.
“Thomas Cook will benefit from having control of a wider distribution network through which to sell their products.
“And from the Co-operative point of view, if you look at their financial performance over the years they haven’t been particularly profitable; clearly the Co-operative board felt that the profits would benefit from being with the bigger organisation.”
Hays would not comment on how the merger might affect shop numbers in the northeast, but he added: “The only concern we have is if Thomas Cook have more controlled distribution they might not use third-party distribution through people such as ourselves, but we’ll see how that pans out.”
However, Hays said he had received assurances from Thomas Cook that this would not be the case, adding: “We value our working relationship; we’ve always had a very close relationship with Cooks so I’m really happy to take them at their word.”