Former Shrewsbury Thomas Cook workers say thank you for 'amazing' support
Former Thomas Cook employees in Shrewsbury have thanked people in the town for their support after being re-hired by Hays Travel.
Branch manager Faye Blower and four of her staff have taken up jobs offers with Hays after the travel agents stepped in and bought 555 Thomas Cook stores around the UK.
She said the support from people and businesses in the county town during the three weeks of uncertainty was overwhelming.
"It has been three weeks since we found out that Thomas Cook has collapsed and it has been a stressful time for all of us," she said.
"The support we had from people locally has been absolutely amazing really. We know a lot of people in the town and have booked people's honeymoons or first holiday with their friends but we didn't expect anything like this.
"A lot of us had worked at Thomas Cook for more than 20 years so it was the first time we had not been in a job. We all went to the Jobcentre together which was scary and daunting but they were amazing with us and arranged a meeting to explain how everything works."
Grateful
While some staff found employment elsewhere, five of the original staff are now working for Hays.
Faye said: "We got the call on Thursday last week to say they were taking over the store and asking did we want to come back.
"The response has been so lovely. Staff from Peakes Travel came into the store to say how brilliant it is to have us back and the manager from Tui sent a message saying the same thing. We were really grateful for their support when the shop closed as they helped our customers.
"I'm so happy to be back. It's a lovely job. Don't get me wrong of course we have bad days but I love creating memories for people. Seeing the faces of children when they're told they're going to Florida is magical."
The team is hosting an open day on Saturday for customers to meet the staff.
