Case studies
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Kanoo Travel - Sparkhouse Enable Successful TUPE Transfer
The Challenge
Kanoo acquired a UK business, 28 retail travel and foreign exchange retail units, from a global Blue Chip organisation which included the transfer of over 200 employees. Kanoo at the time had a large presence in the Middle East but was very new to the European arena. The acquisition therefore required that a new legal entity be set up to include a completely new HR structure before employees could be transferred.
The Solution
With a six month timeframe Sparkhouse completed the transfer including employee consultation and implementation of an HR structure with employee benefits and policies and procedures which equalled that of the seller ensuring that complex contractual terms were protected or matched on transfer.
Sparkhouse successfully achieved this by developing an excellent working relationship with senior management at Kanoo, gaining a good understanding of the company culture and working closely with the seller. Good relationships and communication are invaluable and very necessary when managing such complex employee situations.
The processes Sparkhouse undertook to ensure a successful transfer, included:
- National Road Shows and Employee consultation
- Working with benefits providers to implement employee benefit schemes
- Setting up a pension scheme to match existing terms
- Implementing a fully automated web enabled payroll system
- Issuing personalised addendums to contracts
- Writing a new Employee Handbook
The Benefits
“To transfer any employees under a TUPE scenario is a tough and engaging task at the best of times, to do so when you are moving employees from a global blue chip organisation to a new legal entity in the UK is extremely demanding. Add into this mix, the owners of this legal entity are foreign based and you have just 6 months to achieve all this and you will begin to appreciate the scale of the task involved.
To the credit of everyone at Sparkhouse Consultants they not only achieved this task on time but they produced such an effective communication strategy within this process that the transfer was smooth and 100% effective. Very rarely do you work with a company that takes such pride in the service they provide and who care so passionately about the people they are working with. We simply could not have done it without them”.
Warren Joy
UK General Manager
Kanoo Travel & FES Services Ltd