Thomas Cook plans to close 50 shops
Thomas Cook has announced plans to close 50 more stores in the latest phase of an ongoing review of its UK retail network, putting 400 jobs at risk.
The closures are due to occur between now and March 2018 and are a mix of Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel branded stores.
A spokesman said it expects to redeploy a ‘large proportion’ of the staff affected.
Thomas Cook said the shops under threat are either close to other stores, or in locations where a decline in footfall has hit profitability.
It insisted high street retail remains an important channel, with 47% of Thomas Cook holidays booked in store in 2017.
But it said online sales in the UK grew by 27%, demonstrating ‘further progress’ in Thomas Cook’s strategy to become an omni-channel travel business.
UK director of retail and customer experience Kathryn Darbandi said: "We continually review our network of stores across the UK to make sure we’re offering customers the best of Thomas Cook, and it is clear that to succeed we have to operate as a truly omni-channel business.
"We’re one Thomas Cook to our customers and we will offer them a world-class service whichever channel they chose to book, be that retail or online."
Thomas Cook announced the closure of 17 shops in May and 39 in mid-February as part of its retail review. It also cut 50 of its homeworker roles.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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