The company announced internally yesterday its plans to alter its retail structure, revealing that it was seeking to expand its current cluster structure to include some of the large and small standalone stores.

Cook said in a statement that the move would mean “109 colleagues [are] placed at risk”.

It said it had entered into individual consultation from October 5 with the branch and cluster managers affected.

As part of the reorganisation, the travel giant also said it had plans to invest in its regional business manager field team, which currently works across 21 areas, with between 12 and 30 direct reports.

In a statement Cook added: “We have announced our proposal to invest in this very area and increase the size of the team from 21 to 24 across three divisions – North, Central and South.

“The role going forward will be renamed regional manager and each will have on 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.”

Kathryn Darbandi, director of retail and customer experience, at Thomas Cook UK and 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.”