Thomas Cook Is Still Paying a High Price For Its Past Sins
Photo Credit: A Thomas Cook store. The company reported a fall in full-year pre-tax profit. Thomas Cook
Skift Take
While Thomas Cook has yet to fully step out of the shadow of its near-collapse in 2011, the current management team has at least managed to steady the ship. But 2016 has presented its own challenges with terrorism in Turkey doing particular damage.
Five years ago tour operator Thomas Cook almost went out of business.
The situation was so dire that the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron asked in Parliament to be kept abreast of what was happening.
There was a sense that the government wasn’t going to let one of the biggest names in travel retail fail and eventually, after much behind the scenes financial wrangling, it was saved.
Since then successive CEOs have edged the company closer to normality.
Harriet Green quickly became a firm favourite of the city by presiding over a period of extensive cost-cutting. Peripheral businesses were sold, shops closed, and employees made redundant. Accordingly, the company’s share price rose to a highs of more than $2.22 (£1.80), having fallen as low as $0.10 (£0.08) in late 2011.
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