Thomas Cook confirms 14 redundancies in cluster management shake-up

Thomas Cook has confirmed that 14 cluster/branch manager are being made redundant as part of an ongoing consultation on its retail structure.

The company had originally said there could be up to 50 redundancies as part of the management restructure.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said the consultation was ongoing and “fluid”, with staff still having meetings, although he confirmed that there would be “14 compulsory departures”.

He said: “The situation remains fluid, and meetings with employees are still taking place. At the start of the process we identified 48 less store management roles, which has since reduced to only 14 compulsory departures. We remain committed to doing everything that we can to support those individuals concerned further to this proposal,”

Thomas Cook says the restructure is all part of a business review aimed at “optimising and driving improved performance in retail”. The consultation period began in early October.

The review includes plans to expand the cluster structure, which could result in new clusters being formed and more standalone stores joining existing clusters.

The spokesman added: “Following a business review aimed at optimising and driving improved performance in retail, we advised colleagues in our retail teams of our intention to reorganise the division in October. 

“This included increasing the size of the Regional Business Manager Field team from 21 to 24 across three divisions – North, Central and South, and renaming the role ‘regional manager’ while ensuring each has an average 15 direct reports.

“The revised structure and investment into this team will 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. 

“In parallel, we are looking to expand the current cluster structure to include some of the large and small standalone stores and in some instances a re-organisation of existing clusters too.”