Thomas Cook have reported losses of £398 million this year and have announced that they will be closing 200 stores in the UK over the next two years which could result in up to 1,000 job losses.
Poor trading in the UK and the problems in the Middle East and North Africa are being blamed for the staggering losses. People have been put off of travelling to Egypt and Tunisia. Thomas Cook also reported that bookings in the UK and in France have been well below their forecasts for the year. As more and more customers are moving online to book their holidays and to purchase travel money Thomas Cook plan to target this market and improve their market share of online bookings from 25% to 40-50% of total UK online travel bookings.
The acting Chief Executive Sam Weihagen wants to assure Thomas Cook customers who have already booked package holidays that they will not lose out. Their holidays are safe and Weihagen commented “We now have a stable financial background and we have also stated previously that we are doing lots of things to dispose of assets in order to reduce the debt we have.” Thomas Cook have sold the Spanish hotel chain Hotels Y Club De Vacaciones 9ICV) for £61m as part of it’s strategy to reduce their debts.
Thomas Cook shares have slumped by 75% in a single day after there were fears of the 170 year old companies survival but Weihagen confirms that the firm is now on a solid financial footing.
