Thomas Cook - Ceases Trading

[Wymsey]

Very sad to hear. 

Seems to have happened out of the blue, only hearing about their struggles in the last week, admittedly..

 

Other airlines have supplied their own extra planes to try and bring Thomas Cook passengers (around 150,000) back home.

Edited 23 September 2019 by Wymeswold fox

[TheUltimateWinner]

They've been in trouble for ages but thought they were in the clear when Fosun announced the bailout back in August. Seems things escalated very quickly this week when they were told to find another 200m to survive in a short space of time. 

 

Awful for employees, some of which have come straight from Monarch. 

[Kopic]

They nearly went bust a couple of years ago too. They've been struggling for a while, I flew with them back in August and was worrying pre holiday.

 

Its horrendous for all their staff waking up this morning. That last flight landing this morning must have been weird for the crew on board, losing their jobs mid flight.

 

What I don't understand is why, in this day and age, they had nearly 600 travel agent stores. I don't think I've ever seen someone in one of them. You can do it all online and cheaper now, just a black hole of rent and wages for years and years.

[stripeyfox]

He's one of our own...

 

[TheUltimateWinner]

15 minutes ago, Kopic said:

They nearly went bust a couple of years ago too. They've been struggling for a while, I flew with them back in August and was worrying pre holiday.

 

Its horrendous for all their staff waking up this morning. That last flight landing this morning must have been weird for the crew on board, losing their jobs mid flight.

 

What I don't understand is why, in this day and age, they had nearly 600 travel agent stores. I don't think I've ever seen someone in one of them. You can do it all online and cheaper now, just a black hole of rent and wages for years and years.

In a long list of poor business moves they also expanded their number of stores by buying out co op travel in 2016.

 

Moves like that are what led it to it’s demise..

 

 

[Tuna]

I remember them sponsoring Peterborough United in the early 90s and a particular lively red jersey.

[Guest BlueBrett]

Not surprised. Was involved in their audit a few years back. They've been in a mess for ages and their management didn't seem to have a plan.

[yorkie1999]

40 minutes ago, TheUltimateWinner said:

They've been in trouble for ages but thought they were in the clear when Fosun announced the bailout back in August. Seems things escalated very quickly this week when they were told to find another 200m to survive in a short space of time. 

 

Awful for employees, some of which have come straight from Monarch. 

I bet Fosun end up buying it for next to nothing.

[foxy boxing]

I'm sorry it has stopped trading. they asked for government help but the taxpayer cannot and should not bail out every company that runs into difficulty, we did that with the banks. companies need to be self sufficient and transparent.

[Filbert_Ross]

Heard someone moaning on radio5 this morning that they’d had their holiday cancelled.  They’d booked it last night at 11:30pm. 

I didn’t have much sympathy for him. 

[StanSP]

Annoyed that most of the headlines are about the holiday-makers and their troubles now getting back home. Admittedly yes it is very shit and unfortunate they find themselves in this predicament. But it's short term issues compared to the other thousands of people who now have no jobs and may now struggle to pay their mortgages/bills etc. 

 

My sympathies lie more with those affected who used to work for them now as opposed to tourists who need to find alternatives to get home. 

[Strokes]

10 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Annoyed that most of the headlines are about the holiday-makers and their troubles now getting back home. Admittedly yes it is very shit and unfortunate they find themselves in this predicament. But it's short term issues compared to the other thousands of people who now have no jobs and may now struggle to pay their mortgages/bills etc. 

 

My sympathies lie more with those affected who used to work for them now as opposed to tourists who need to find alternatives to get home. 

If there is still the same demand for holidays, other companies will recruit them as they increase their market share.

Im sure it’s not great for them today but dedicated hard working staff are rarely out of work for long.

[The People's Hero]

Originally a Leicester company wasn't it? First ever travel agent in the world?

 

Regardless its a very sad story and potentially a bit ridiculous that the Govt didn't just seek to take control of the company and fully bail it out, given that the taxpayer is paying for all the repatriation anyway. Don't know the details so there's probably a good explanation.

 

Huge company and a bit of an institution. Plenty jobless. Terrible news.

[RonnieTodger]

I had a flight booked with Monarch when they went bust and holiday with Thomas Cook now  

 

In all seriousness it's a chaotic industry and a sad story for holiday makers and obviously employees, you don't have to choose who to feel sorry for. How many other industries do they have to keep operating and then just draw a line under it and call it quits? Obviously they can't work for free, but it's crazy.

[TheUltimateWinner]

Also fvck the media being vultures hassling poor people who have lost their jobs. Of course they don't want to speak when their life has been turned upside down. 

[yorkie1999]

1 hour ago, foxy boxing said:

I'm sorry it has stopped trading. they asked for government help but the taxpayer cannot and should not bail out every company that runs into difficulty, we did that with the banks. companies need to be self sufficient and transparent.

They asked for £200 million, it's going to cost atol £600 million to re-repatriate and compensate everyone, seems a lot cheaper to actually give Thomas Cook the £200 million plus they'd still have the revenue. Read that 80% of holidays in Greece are through Thomas Cook and it will have a massive effect on their tourism industry, makes me wonder why didn't the Greek tourism industry help Thomas Cook out?

[Christoph]

Makes you wonder why they have so many shops as well. They have shops all over the place in prime areas where the rent and business rates must be very high. Surely they should have just rented out a few offices and centralised their business? 

 

Seems to be that this is almost their own undoing by not getting with the times. 

[boots60]

The Thomas Cook boozer on the Narborough road went to the wall years ago. Only a matter of time before the travel section went 

[MC Prussian]

59 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

They asked for £200 million, it's going to cost atol £600 million to re-repatriate and compensate everyone, seems a lot cheaper to actually give Thomas Cook the £200 million plus they'd still have the revenue. Read that 80% of holidays in Greece are through Thomas Cook and it will have a massive effect on their tourism industry, makes me wonder why didn't the Greek tourism industry help Thomas Cook out?

Because they have no funds themselves, Greece is largely dependent on EU monies, mostly from Germany, France and the UK (plus Italy and Sweden).

[Footballwipe]

1 hour ago, yorkie1999 said:

They asked for £200 million, it's going to cost atol £600 million to re-repatriate and compensate everyone, seems a lot cheaper to actually give Thomas Cook the £200 million plus they'd still have the revenue. Read that 80% of holidays in Greece are through Thomas Cook and it will have a massive effect on their tourism industry, makes me wonder why didn't the Greek tourism industry help Thomas Cook out?

I mean we don't know the ins and outs, but I imagine that £200m might only have been a stay of execution until the next £200m was needed, then more, then more. If it's been struggling for a while there's no guarantee pumping in more cash was going to save it. How long do you go on rescuing it for? Spend a billion delaying the inevitable and it still collapses... suddenly it's £1.6bn spent.

 

Just reckon it's not as simple as "£200m would've saved it, we've just spent £400m we didn't need to."

[stripeyfox]

Pointless bailing out a company. It's not up to the Government to do so and even if they did, it's only delaying the inevitable. 

 

It's a terrible shame for the people who work there. It's a big name to fail, but like Woolworths etc,  but the world will move on. 

[Jimothy]

3 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

Originally a Leicester company wasn't it? First ever travel agent in the world?

 

Regardless its a very sad story and potentially a bit ridiculous that the Govt didn't just seek to take control of the company and fully bail it out, given that the taxpayer is paying for all the repatriation anyway. Don't know the details so there's probably a good explanation.

 

Huge company and a bit of an institution. Plenty jobless. Terrible news.

Yeah, set up in Leicester. First organised trip was to Loughborough. He was walking from Market Hatnorough for a Temperence Society meeting and had the idea. I live off Thomas Cook Place in Loughborough, as its opposite the train station.

 

In think other have pointed out, the government don't bail out all companies. It's sad but they can't save everything. Companies go under all the time for various reasons, the government can't save them all. As pointed out, it might £200m now, but when would the next £200m be needed.

 

I agree with the others on here saying they just don't seem to have moved with the times. Still having a huge high street presence, having three huge headquarters rather than one, things like that. They've been struggling for a while and from what I'm hearing today, they haven't acted when they've come close before, they've just refinanced and carried on losing money. 

Edited 23 September 2019 by Facecloth

[yorkie1999]

4 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Because they have no funds themselves, Greece is largely dependent on EU monies, mostly from Germany, France and the UK (plus Italy and Sweden).

The owners of the hotel in Crete i just went to looked well minted, still it's their future not mine! 

[ozleicester]

Rampant modern capitalism

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/22/thomas-cook-bosses-received-20m-bonuses-last-5-years-company/

[Milo]

5 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

Rampant modern capitalism

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/22/thomas-cook-bosses-received-20m-bonuses-last-5-years-company/

That's shocking