Hays Travel Limited is an independent travel agent chain headquartered in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, England. According to recent statistics, the company has the largest number of retail travel shops in the United Kingdom. As an independent agent, Hays Travel uses other tour operators such as Jet2 and TUI to provide package holidays to customers in the United Kingdom.

History

Hays Travel was founded in 1980 by John Hays in

Seaham Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and c ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. Hays initially opened a small retail store behind his mother's clothing store. Since May 2018, Hays Travel reached sales of over £1 billion. The company's turnover increased by £42 million over 2017, when pre-tax profit was up slightly to £10.1 million. At the time, the company had around 1,500 employees.

Expansion

On 9 October 2019, Hays Travel announced that it had purchased all stores from the travel agency

Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — an ...

, another large travel group headquartered in the UK, which were assumed to be closed due to the business entering liquidation during previous months. The company took over 550 retail locations across the United Kingdom. News reports at the time indicated that Hays would almost treble the number of existing stores and double its workforce. By the end of November 2019, Hays stated that it would hire an extra 1,500 staff, in addition to its 2,330 who previously worked for Thomas Cook. The total number of Hays Travel employees would total 5,700 people, after the planned hirings. In March 2020, following the purchase of Thomas Cook, Hays Travel was named as one of the ''Top 100 Employers in the United Kingdom''. On 3 August 2020, Hays Travel announced up to 878 members of its retail staff would be made redundant. On 5 September 2020, Hays Travel acquired Tailor Made Travel, a Welsh chain of travel agencies with approximately 100 employees, then announced the closure of 11 of the 19 shops a month later.

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.haystravel.co.uk 1980 establishments in England Travel agencies British companies established in 1980 Transport companies established in 1980 Companies based in the City of Sunderland Travel and holiday companies of the United Kingdom Privately held companies of England