‘Thomas Cook's staff are desperate to deliver for Hays Travel’

’We’re optimistic we’ll trade well’

The deal with Cook’s liquidators means Hays has bought a job lot, one carefully examined by regulators to ensure the company is not over-extending itself. John said the deal had been funded “with no debt” and had been well scrutinised.

“It’s a big enough deal for the CAA to take a very keen interest,” he said. “We’ve had to provide an awful lot of financial information, as well as business plans.”

Hays will take the shops on existing rental agreements with a nine-month “licence to occupy”, which can be extended. All landlords are guaranteed current rents until then.

“During that time, many of the leases will be open for renegotiation,” said Irene. “We were given profit and loss information as best they had it. In many locations, rents were very high and quite a few shops were losing money. But we believe because of the Hays model and because we don’t pay ourselves a lot of money or have grandiose head offices, that de-risks the deal.”

She added: “We are very comfortable and confident that once we have had a proper look at the opportunities, we will maintain the vast majority of shops. Bath Travel had some shops that were very poor; now they are all very good.”

All the shops will take the Hays name, but there will inevitably be some duplication and probable closures further down the line. “We are optimistic we will trade well in all the shops. That said, where we do have overlap, if we have under-performing shops we would do what any sound business would do economically and have a look at them,” said John.