Wirral's Thomas Cook branches escape closure (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral's Thomas Cook branches escape closure

9:54am Friday 8th March 2013 in News By Craig Manning

WIRRAL’S three Thomas Cook branch offices are to stay open, the company has confirmed.

The holidays group earlier this week announced plans to close 195 of its high street travel agencies with the loss of 2,500 jobs.

The move is part of a "restructuring" of the business aimed at slashing administration costs.

Unfortunately, Co-operative Travel in Birkenhead's Grange Road, part of the Thomas Cook group, is earmarked for closure.

Its five staff are currently involved in redundancy consultation.

However, Thomas Cook offices in Grange Road, Birkenhead, Liscard Way, Wallasey, and Hoylake Road, Moreton, have been spared the axe.

Having recently closed 168 stores, the company - the world's oldest travel firm - will be left with 874 travel agencies across the UK and Northern Ireland. .

Administrative and managerial jobs are also at risk at the firm’s head office in Peterborough.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents employees, said it was "shocked and angry" at the scale of the job losses.

General secretary Manuel Cortes said: "This constant policy of slash and burn, with the axing of one in four stores and the loss of jobs, is simply self-defeating.

“The company needs new products if it is to come to terms with the age of the internet and prosper in the 21st century.

"That is the only way to stop this spiral of decline which repeated bad management decisions over the past five years has led them."

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook UK & Ireland’s chief executive, said: "It is never easy to make decisions that impact directly on our people, but we also owe it to our customers to shape the business effectively and ensure that, when they book their holiday with us, our administrative costs are as low as possible."