Former Thomas Cook store reopens in Telford as Hays Travel begins takeover

The store in Telford Shopping Centre was closed following the collapse of travel giant Thomas Cook, but has now once more opened its doors to customers as staff returned to welcome them.

Staff spoke of their relief when Hays Travel bought 555 of Thomas Cook's stores across the UK and said that they are happy to have opened the shop for customers to pop in and speak to them, but there is still work to be done before the official opening on Monday 4 November.

Kimberley Jefferies, store manager at the Telford branch who had worked for Thomas Cook for 15 years, said the move shocked them but they are relieved to be open again.

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• Hope for staff in Shrewsbury, Telford and Whitchurch as Thomas Cook stores are bought by rival

"We were wishing for something like this to happen, for someone to buy the company," she said. "But we never thought it would actually happen.

"When the company collapsed, it felt like somebody had died. None of us slept. Took a while for it to sink in.

Booking

"It happened on 23 September and we are open now on 23 October so it is quite nice to be back in the store a month later.

"We officially open on November 4 but for a couple of days this week we will open the shop for customers to pop in and start looking into booking holidays and just having a chat with us."

Natasha Wood, who had worked at the company for two years, was about to start another job when she got the good news about Hays Travel buying the stores.

She said: "I am very relieved. It was hard when Thomas Cook closed. I had a week off work before everything happened so I was getting ready for work on the Monday and saw the collapse on the news.

"I thought 'well, I won't be going into work today then'. I literally just cried and I couldn't sleep. I had about two hours sleep in 48 hours I reckon.

"It was all just a bit of a blur. It was a strange feeling, as if it was not really happening.

"The store is open today so we can just speak to people and our old customers. It's like the team is back together again. It was hard thinking we were never going to work together again because we are like a big family."