Speaking to TTG at the Abta Customer Insight in the Travel Industry forum on Monday, Kathryn Darbandi, director of retail and customer experience, said Cook was still planning to open a number of stores this year as well as “relocate quite a few”.

Just 10 weeks ago the company announced plans to close 39 stores, but this week it also announced the opening of a new Discovery store (pictured) in Silverburn, Scotland – its first in the country – which Cook said had created 12 new jobs in the area.

Darbandi said the company was focused on opening and relocating stores to be in the “right locations”.

“We have got more shops to open and we have got quite a few we would like to relocate.

“There’s still more to do and more to evolve, but it’s a really positive story because it’s making sure we’ve got the right shops in the right places at the right time,” she told TTG.

“The high street changes,” she added, “and we have got many shops that have been in their locations for 30, 40, 50 years. In some cases that’s still the right location, and in others we need to move.”

Darbandi said this meant she could not rule out further store closures, but stressed: “Like all retailers, leases expire and when they expire we assess the performance of that store so I couldn’t stand here and say no [we won’t close any more shops].

But we are equally opening as many stores and relocating and we are certainly investing.”

Meanwhile, Darbandi added that she believed Cook had “drifted too far” from “having customers at its heart” prior to her arrival at the company from Tui two years ago.

She hailed a number of initiatives since launched by Cook, which she said had helped it to “regroup and improve” its relationship with customers, including a 24-hour hotel satisfaction promise started last year, which she branded “one of the best things we’ve done”.