Thomas Cook has announced plans to restructure its retail division with 48 roles at risk of redundancy.
The retailer today announced internally plans to change its retail structure and confirmed it was looking to expand the cluster structure to include some of the large and small standalone stores.
As a result “circa 48 branch/cluster manager positions are at risk of redundancy” due to the proposed changes, with 109 members of staff involved in the consultation process which began today.
Cook said it was looking to “explore all options” to relocate or redeploy staff who choose not to relocate.
In a statement, Thomas Cook insisted that while the cuts were being made, investment was also taking place within its regional business manager field team, which covers 21 areas with between 12 and 30 direct reports.
In future, the size of the team will be increased from 21 to 24 in the north, central and south divisions.
The role has also been renamed regional manager and each will have on average 15 direct reports.
A statement said the new structure would “enable the regional managers to place greater emphasis on the coaching, development and support of their teams in order to drive performance, compliance and to deliver exceptional service to our customers”.
Kathryn Darbandi, director of retail & customer experience at Thomas Cook UK & Ireland, said: “We’ve made a commitment to improve the profitability and performance of the UK business and today’s announcement is part of this.
“We fully appreciate the impact this decision will have on our retail teams. We are committed to doing everything that we can to support those individuals concerned over the coming weeks further to this proposal. I’d like to thank my colleagues for their professionalism as we now enter a period of consultation.”
The announcement comes just two months after Thomas Cook’s new retail chief Darbandi told Travel Weekly she approved of the cluster manager approach.
When introduced, the move to create cluster managers, running two to five stores, was deemed controversial. The move was part of a restructure that saw more than 900 retail jobs axed and nearly 200 shops shut.
In the interview, Darbandi admitted she joined the company “with a very open mind” on the subject but said she had been “entirely converted”.
“I would not go back on it,” she said. “It raises the calibre of the management team.”
The Thomas Cook Group employs 450 managers and cluster managers across its 572 Thomas Cook Stores and 258 Co-operative Travel branches.