The bosses of travel agency Hays Travel say they have had to make “challenging decisions” in the light of the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Husband-and-wife Irene and John Hays shocked the business world last year when their Sunderland firm more than doubled in size overnight with the purchase of the retail estate of failed rivals Thomas Cook.
But a few months into the operation of the enlarged company, Mr and Mrs Hays said that outbreak had “damaging to its profitability”, leading them to ask staff to take unpaid leave or cut their hours.
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Mrs Hays said: “We received 1,200 suggestions from our employees on how to save money. We’ve been making challenging decisions this week about opening hours and about various things.
“You can’t keep hoping and hoping things will get better and put your head in the sand. All we can do is give the advice we obtain from Public Health England and to abide by that information. We try give the best advice we can.
“We do not have any shareholders, we do not have any debts so I think that puts us at a real advantage.”
Hays move to ask staff to take voluntary leave or reduce their hours has come as thousands of people cancel holiday plans due to fears of catching or spreading the virus.
The moves come as travel industry trade body Abta has called on the Government to consider “extraordinary” support measures for travel businesses as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
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Speaking before a public lecture at Sunderland University, Mr Hays said the outbreak is costly for businesses who have to pay staff for working longer hours to help their often concerned customers.
He said: “We have staff working overtime and around the clock to cancel bookings and look after our clients. The situation is changing rapidly but we have got big teams working around the clock.
“Our first concern is our clients and we’ll do our very best to help them.”
Although the future is uncertain for businesses around the world, Mr Hays said he is “confident” the company will come through it.
He added: “Obviously it’s bad for business generally and travel business especially, you just have to look at the share prices of companies around the world. It’s a global problem, not just a 海角视频 problem.
“I would be telling a lie if I said that this is not a major crisis for the whole of the travel industry worldwide. Share prices have dropped and even with a very bad environment, travel shares have dropped even more.
“There is no point me sat here saying it’s fine but we’re confident we will come through it however it’s very damaging to our profitability.”
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The Sunderland company shot into national news last year after they bought 555 Thomas Cook travel agencies.
Mr Hays said: “We didn’t really want them to go down. When there’s a failure of this size there’s always going to be winners and losers and we wanted to be a winner rather than a loser.”
The business has come on leaps and bounds since it’s very humble begins- which started out the back of Mr Hays’ mother’s shop in Seaham.
He explained: “My mam had a children’s wear shop in Seaham. I had been at university and I came back home and wanted to start a business but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
“Seaham didn’t have a travel agency and I thought that it was an opportunity so my mam gave me some space in her shop.
“She wasn’t that generous she just moved the clothing racks further forward to the front!
“The inspiration for me was my mam because I saw the effect of her starting her business on the family. I got it from my mam.”
Mrs Hays added: “We are both from humble backgrounds, we are both passionate about the North East and the community. For 40 years we have supported the communities where we operate.
“We are not hard up but we don’t take any money out of the business because we have got a pretty nice life style, we live by the sea we have all that we want.”