Thomas Cook, a UK-based online/offline travel company, has agreed to sell six of its Midland-based high street stores to Anglia Co-operative Travel, an independent travel agent that operates predominantly in East Anglia, UK.
The branches that Anglia Co-op has acquired are in High Street, Erdington, Birmingham; Walsall Road, Great Barr, Birmingham; Alexandra Road, Corby, Northamptonshire; London Road, Alvaston, Derby; Dog and Gun Lane, Whetstone, Leicestershire; and Brook Street, Raunds, Northamptonshire.
The acquisition means that Anglia Co-op has increased the number of its branches from 15 to 21, and the 22 staff that are currently employed at the branches will have greater job security. The shops already carry the Co-operative Travel branding, following a joint venture between the two companies in 2011, and are based in Midlands Co-operative food stores.
Thomas Cook transacted the store sale in the wake of a massive cost cutting exercise on its part in order to improve its poor financial situation, which included an announcement in March that it would be closing 195 of its stores, with the resultant loss of 2,500 jobs. The six stores are the first to have been sold since that announcement, although Anglia Co-operative travel had already bought three east of England-based shops from Thomas Cook earlier this year and prior to the closure announcement.
Thomas Cook Group Plc was created on 19 June 2007, when Thomas Cook AG merged with MyTravel Group Plc. The company ran into financial difficulties in recent times, culminating in the previously mentioned announcement of cutbacks.
