Partner Article

Thomas Cook announce 200 store closures

Troubled holiday firm Thomas Cook has announced it will close around 200 of its shops of the next two years.

The news came as the company posted their end of year results for 2011, and outlined the UK business turnaround plan.

Following the reported pre-tax losses of 398m for 2011, the firm are looking to restore confidence among investors, and plan to streamline UK operations, as well as reducing their airplane fleet and hotel offerings.

In November Thomas Cook received 200m in a new financing facility from its lenders at Barclays, HSBC, RBS and UniCredit.

Sam Weihagen, Group Chief Executive, Thomas Cook Group plc said: “This has been a very challenging year for the Group, despite which we still delivered an underlying operating profit of over 300m.

“We have instigated significant management changes and implemented a turnaround plan in the UK to address our areas of underperformance.

“We continue to take action to substantially strengthen the balance sheet and the Board is undertaking a full strategic review.

“I am confident that these changes will improve profitability and build a stable foundation from which to rebuild shareholder value.”

The group had already planned to close 75 branches following its merger with The Co-ops travel division.

Ian Ailles, Thomas Cook UK Mainstream CEO and chairman of the Retail Joint Venture, said: “We’ve undertaken a comprehensive review of our retail network and todays proposals will ensure that as the UK’s leading high street travel retailer we have the right stores in the right places for our customers.

“We will now be consulting with those affected colleagues and looking at redeployment opportunities.

“Our high street stores are a popular way for customers to book with us and are an essential part of our multi-channel approach alongside our websites and sales centres.”

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .