Cook failed during the early hours of 23 September 2019, leaving thousands of passengers stranded overseas and a workforce scrambling to establish what their futures looked like.
Among them were thousands of members of Cook’s retail staff, whose workplaces up and down the country were shuttered overnight. Many had worked for Cook for years – some their entire careers.
A fortnight later, on 9 October 2019, Hays Travel acquired Cook’s entire retail estate – some 555 stores – preserving or creating employment opportunities for some 2,500 former staff.
Some five years on, and with the small matter of a global pandemic now thankfully in the rear-view mirror, Hays has now been back in the black for the past three years after its profits for its 2023/24 financial jumped by 43%.
TTG caught up with four members of Hays staff at its recent retail conference in Turkey’s Belek to explore their experience of those fateful days five years ago.
