22 November, 2011

Thomas Cook cuts a weak link

The company intends to Thomas Cook to close 200 of its offices in the UK and reduce the fleet to six aircraft. This was a company must formally announce on Thursday, when an annual report will present results of a thorough revision of the British operations - the weak link in the assets of the tour operator.

As reported by the newspaper The Sunday Times, the second largest in Europe, the tour operator Thomas Cook will close about 200 branches operating in the UK. The British company will announce it when the general will report results for the year and the British operations in particular. These operations are the weakest in the portfolio of Thomas Cook, which generate more revenue Scandinavia and Germany and the UK market which sells 22.5 million package tours annually. This year, after merging with the Co-operative Travel company has already warned of the possibility of closing 75 branches of the British. But now, this figure increases to 200, and then the tour operator will remain in the UK around 1,000 branches. In connection with the closings will be either reduced or transferred to other offices around 1,000 employees.

This year was generally the worst in company history. From the beginning, the company has already taken three warnings about profits, and in early August, the company abruptly left the CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa. All these circumstances have not helped to strengthen investors' confidence, and since the beginning of the shares of Thomas Cook fell by almost 80%. In such deplorable results of the company blamed the troubled situation in such popular tourist destinations such as Egypt, as well as slowing down the British economy.

As analysts had expected, in part accounts for the year, the company announced significant reductions, including the fleet. Thus, the 41 aircraft scheduled tour operator to cut 6. This news has caused outrage unions who threatened to strike. It may also be announced on the revision of the brand portfolio Thomas Cook. Can be sold to the Indian operations of foreign exchange, the share of air traffic control service of the United Kingdom, several hotels, as well as a number of assets which will enable the company to opt out of cheap tours, not yielding a significant return.

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