Thomas Cook Group
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| Thomas Cook Group plc (formerly MyTravel Group plc and Thomas Cook AG) |
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| Type | Public (LSE: TCG.L) |
| Founded | 1841 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
| Key people | Peter McHugh (CEO), Manny Fontenla-Novoa (CEO), Michael Beckett (Deputy Chairman), Thomas Middelhoff (Chairman), John Bloodworth (Managing Director UK) |
| Industry | Transport (Package Holiday Group) |
| Products | Passenger transport |
| Revenue | €9,439 million (2007) |
| Operating income | €455 million (2007) |
| Net income | €226 million (2007) |
| Employees | 22,000 (2007) |
| Website | www.thomascookgroup.com |
Thomas Cook Group plc is a travel company created on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc. At flotation on the London Stock Exchange 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail order and department store corporation KarstadtQuelle AG (former owners of Thomas Cook AG) and 48% owned by the shareholders of MyTravel. The merger, which was backed by 99.9% of shareholders, took place through the formation of 'NewCo' which effectively purchased MyTravel and Thomas Cook and was placed on the FTSE under MyTravel's licence trading as Thomas Cook Group plc.[1]
With a joint fleet, at merger, of 97 aircraft, 2,926 stores, 32,722 employees, and over 19.1 million annual customers, the new group became the second largest travel company in Europe, behind TUI, and the largest in the UK, Scandinavian, French, Dutch, German and North American markets.
Full integration of the two groups is expected to take up to three years. The merger brings together such brands as Airtours and Thomas Cook, Ving and Neckermann, MyTravel Airways, and Condor Airlines, amongst others. Some brand duplication is expected, for example between Escapades and Club 18-30 but most will be complementary. Thomas Cook AG did not operate directly in Northern Europe or North America while MyTravel had no operations in most of Continental Europe.
It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
On 6 March 2008, Thomas Cook Group Chief Executive - Mr. Manny Fontenla-Novoa announced that the Group had bought back its licence to operate the Thomas Cook Brand in the Middle East and Asia from The Dubai Financial Group for an amount estimated to be around 249 million Euros. The licence includes the lucrative markets of India and the Middle East which are experiencing a boom in travel. Thomas Cook has had a presence in India since 1880 and has a staff of around 2500 and operates 180 outlets across 40 cities offering both travel and forex services. Besides India, the company now owns the brand in India, Egypt and 15 other countries across the Middle East.
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[edit] History
[edit] Thomas Cook AG
Thomas Cook Worldwide has 5 wholly owned subsidiaries Thomas Cook UK, Thomas Cook Netherlands, Thomas Cook France, Thomas Cook Belgium, Thomas Cook Destinations and majority holdings in Condor Flugdienst and TC Touristik. Thomas Cook used to have a franchise agreement in the Middle East - Specifically in the United Arab Emirates through a licensee agreement it had with a local group called the Al Rostamani Group. The venture has now been terminated after The Thomas Cook brand name was sold to Dubai Holdings which planned to use it in the Middle East. However on 6 March 2008, Thomas Cook Group has bought back the brand name from Dubai Holdings for an estimated 249 million Euros.
In the United Kingdom, Thomas Cook conforms to the model of a 'vertically integrated travel company' operating an airline, a retail arm and also a tour operator. This tour operator division has previously been known as Thomas Cook Tour Operations but in early 2006 was restructured as the 'Holidays Division', incorporating the previously separate Thomas Cook Signature brand alongside the Thomas Cook, JMC and Sunset brands. The 'Specialist Products' division includes flexibletrips.com, Club 18-30, Style, Neilson Active Holidays and Sunworld Ireland.
In 1999, Thomas Cook AG sold off its worldwide Foreign Exchange business to Travelex to concentrate on tours and holidays.
After the market depression, particularly following September 11, 2001 attacks, Thomas Cook AG had started a disinvestment programme by disposing off some of its subsidiaries and business ventures to follow a highly flexible business model and become an asset light company with minimum capital tie up. The business focuses on Europe for the sale of package holidays and tailor-made holidays for customers' specific requirements.
On December 21, 2005, Thomas Cook AG, sold off Thomas Cook International Markets, a venture which includes 60% of the stake in Thomas Cook India Ltd to Dubai Financial LLC, a part of the Dubai Investment Group (DIG) which manages the financial and real estate interests of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai. Thomas Cook India is a profitable venture which offers a broad band of services like package tours, currency exchange and travel insurance besides hotel and flight reservations. Thomas Cook India has been in existence for 124 years and operates 60 offices across various locations. Thomas Cook India has branches in Sri Lanka and Mauritius and reported sales of €23.3 million. After the take over by Dubai Financial LLC, Thomas Cook India has taken over LKP Forex, one of India's leading foreign exchange houses and more recently The Travel Corporation of India (TCI), India's leading travel and tourism corporation.
Following this, Thomas Cook Overseas Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomas Cook UK was sold off, this time again to Dubai Financial LLC. (Thomas Cook Overseas Ltd consists of 19 travel agencies, 22 currency exchanges in Egypt with 371 employees and during the 2005 business year had a turnover of just under €6 million).
Thomas Cook AG soon entered the market again, this time to sell off two more of its subsidiaries - Thomas Cook Thailand and Thomas Cook Middle East both to Dubai Financial LLC. Thomas Cook Middle East consists of the Middle East region, which has experienced a boom in travel and tourism, especially in places like Dubai, Qatar, Oman and so on. Thomas Cook Lebanon S.A.L. had started in June 2004 providing travel and financial services. The company also operates a travel agency and a currency exchange in Beirut. Dubai Financials has planned an aggressive expansion strategy for its newly acquired arms.
Thomas Cook Canada was sold to Transat A.T. in 2006, marking Thomas Cook's exit from the North American market in terms of its own retailer.
[edit] MyTravel Group PLC
The group was founded under the Airtours brand in 1972, when David Crossland purchased a series of small travel agencies in Lancashire, United Kingdom. The group began operating package holidays and launched its own in-house charter airline, in the early 1980s.
During the 1990s, Airtours purchased Scandinavian Leisure Group (SLG) including award winning tour operators such as Ving and airline Premiair.
In the late 1990s Airtours bought or created NALG, North American Leisure Group, which operated several airlines and cruise lines from its offices in Canada and California; including Sunquest Air, Sunquest West and several others. It also bought Norwegian Cruiselines and Carnival Cruises; the best and worst of the cruising world.
In 1999 Airtours touted itself as the largest travel group in the world. In approximately 2000 Airtours began to implode. It was successfully sued for the first time by one of its competitors; which opened the doors to a multitude of suits by others. it was charged with illegal antitrust violations of monopoly and strong-arming its competitors, suppliers, and contractors. The largest travel group in the world unwound it spiralling kite.
In 2002, Airtours Group PLC, re branded under the new company wide banner of MyTravel Group PLC. This included a name change for Airtours International and Premiair to MyTravel Airways. Shops throughout Northern Europe were re branded to MyTravel however UK retail outlets remained under the banner of Going Places due to the immense brand awareness (currently 97%) and popularity - a brand that continually wins the accolade of ‘UK’s Favourite Travel Agent’ as voted for by Daily Mail readers.
The company ran into financial difficulties in 2004 and needed to implement a debt-for-equity swap in order to complete implementation of a group restructure. It completed its financial restructuring and saw a turnaround in its business and its North America and Northern European divisions produced record profits consecutively for 2 years.
In 2004/2005, MyTravel took 5.7 million people on holiday of which 3.4 million were from the UK, 1.5 million from Northern Europe and 0.8 million from North America.
- EU Approval for the merger was granted on the 4th May 2007. (See press release at [1])
[edit] Divisions & Brands
The new Thomas Cook Group PLC has seven Core Consumer Brands including Thomas Cook, Airtours, Neckermann, Condor, Ving, Direct Holidays and My Sunquest. The company operates in five main divisions, UK, Northern Europe, North America, Continental Europe, and German Airlines. Thomas Cook Group PLC Divisions & Brands. Thomas Cook is also a sponsor of Manchester City F.C.
