This sounds like a very good thing for all concerned however 500+ shops is a lot of Rent not to mention Employee costs & running costs turning over 379.8m and having assets of 5m means nothing if the CUSTOMERS fail to come into the shops.an extra 500 shops mean a lot of CUSTOMERS need to step into those shops and people will think twice before they do just that. But good luck to all involved i just hope it does not turn out to be a damp squid.

Great Business by the Hays family.... Buy the assets (and required staff) at a discount and who pays to fly the stranded tourists back from their holidays? - The tax man (Us?) or is that coming from the proceeds of sale!!?.... However, this is just good business and I am happy for the Ex-TC staff who will be able to get back to thier jobs quickly.

The £2.50 every holiday maker paid... those that did not pay get rescued industry again. Tax man is unlikely to spend a penny (once again). This is why every flight should be protected so the company's playing by the rules do not bail out holiday makers working their way round them to save a tenner.

Well done to John/Irene. If anyone can make a success of it then they can. Hopefully it goes as well as their acquisition of Bath Travel which seemed to work out very well for them. Great news for the staff who will retain their jobs.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear !!! avarice is a financial mortal sin - watch this space.

King Avarist Mr O'Leary at Ryanair hasn't done too badly. I think to be fair to Hays, they have been going for almost 40 years and have shown growth on the back of sensible business cases rather than a huge appetite for massive material gain. As you say let's watch this space and we can converse again maybe a year on..

One has to congratulate John and Irene. If they did a great deal and expanded the Hayes brand at a bargain cost, bravo! If they paid fully for the sites and staff and took on more than needed and presented their own business with upcoming headaches, like competitive outlets close to each other, you have to admire their bravery.

They and the Hayes brand deserve massive goodwill for such a move. I hope their PR team is able to fully capitalise on that opportunity.

As Paulie stated, I also didn't see that coming.

Hays has the financial clout to pull this off, with Turnover posted as 379.8M and assets of 40.4M.

Let's hope that the landlord's offered a fantastic deal, as at minimum for 500+ shops the annual rent is going to top 6M plus staff costs of approx 3M and with running costs adding approx 5M.

John and Irene have ensured that most of the previous TC staff will be re-hired.

Well done !

Congrats John. Great to see a silver lining in this cloud across for our industry. Wishing Hays Travel success taking on these stores.

Fabulous news, jobs will be saved, not only that so much for the doom sayers, saying the high street is dead. I am pleased for the ex agency staff of Thomas Cook which must have been a very stressful time for them.

Well.... didn't see that coming. Well done John. Huge undertaking, but gutsy moves like this often work.