Tag Archives: Thomas Cook

No enhanced redundancy package for Co-op travel staff

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No enhanced redundancy package for Co-op travel staff

Oct 05, 2011 07:45AM GMT

The Co-operative Group has refused to give staff in the travel division an enhanced redundancy package being offered to employees in other parts of the business, despite appeals from unions and staff.

As part of a management integration programme the group is providing staff made redundant from the financial services and retail divisions with a topped-up package of statutory redundancy multiplied by three, with an extra eight weeks.

However, despite protests from the unions, the group has said it would be “inappropriate” to extend the offer to travel staff, who will transfer employment to Thomas Cook under the terms of the joint venture. The merger was officially completed on Tuesday.

The Co-op has yet to reveal how many travel staff will lose their jobs, but some said the decision showed the company was “washing its hands” of travel.

One employee said: “From a company that boasts about its ethical and moral values and how it treats its staff, it is going in the face of that to discriminate against the travel staff. It is washing its hands of travel in a joint venture that will save millions.”

Trade unions the National Association of Co-operative Officials (Naco) and Usdaw, fought the decision at a meeting with Co-operative Group chief executive Peter Marks on September 29. Marks is also a non-executive director of the travel joint venture.

Neil Buist, general secretary of Naco, said: “While we have made every effort to secure enhanced redundancy terms for those affected by the joint venture, unfortunately the group chief executive has confirmed the enhanced terms will not be extended.”

A spokesman for the Co-operative Group said: “The group chief executive has listened to the submissions but has determined that it would not be appropriate in the case of employees joining the new joint venture to introduce a discretionary ‘top-up’ to our present terms.”

Cook and Cosmos to turn up heat on Greece

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Cook and Cosmos to turn up heat on Greece

By Lee Hayhurst |  Sep 24, 2011 14:25PM GMT

Greece looks set to become a key battleground in 2012 with both Thomas Cook and Cosmos promising to ramp up their activities in the destination.

Thomas Cook head of mainstream Ian Ailles told TTA Worldchoice delegates at this weekend’s overseas conference that Manos was a brand that had been “under developed” in recent years.

And addressing the conference via video Monarch Group business development director Stuart Jackson said it was expanding its Greece portfolio. At the turn of the year Monarch ended a flights deal with Olympic Holidays for what was believed to be 250,000 peak season seats, bringing them in-house to support the Cosmos tour operation.

Jackson said Cosmos was trading well ahead of the market for summer 2012 at 20% up, against the overall market that was down 1%. He said TTA Worldchoice agents were 37% up for Cosmos.

He told agents Cosmos currently sold around 20% through independent agents but that the Monarch group did not put a cap on this and it was limited only “by the desire of agents to sell it”.

Cosmos believes it is gaining ground on rivals as agents look for an alternative to selling holidays provided by the big two and want the reassurance of a well known brand.  Despite the good start to 2012 trading he warned: “The industry has gone through a difficult period and that will continue. 2012 will be an even tougher year.

“During tough times it’s key that we select our partners correctly and work with people we know are going to around for the long term.” Ailles also reported that 2012 had got off to a good start although he too warned the economic backdrop meant that the next 12 months would be tough.

He praised rival Tui for its performance, saying it was benefitting from some of the changes made by its former management team. “It’s not easy to turn a tour operator around quickly. They have had the benefit of a couple of years [of doing this] and that’s helped them this year.

“I anticipate that some other tour operators as we get to the end of the season and the end of the cashflow cycle will fail. The good news is summer 2012 has got off to a great start. We are significantly ahead of where we were for Summer 2011. It’s about having the right product in the right market at the right time.”

Ailles admits Thomas Cook has ‘made errors’

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Ailles admits Thomas Cook has ‘made errors’

By Lee Hayhurst |  Sep 24, 2011 13:54PM GMT

Ailles admits Thomas Cook has 'made errors'

Thomas Cook head of mainstream Ian Ailles struck a conciliatory tone when accused by agents of poor standards of service at this weekend’s TTA Worldchoice in conference.

Conceding that the operator had not lived up to the standards it ought to aspire to he promised agents that they would be very much part of its distribution mix in the future and that it would sort out its problems.

Agents confronted him with complaints about product and accusations that Thomas Cook is increasingly impossible to deal with and undercutting them online. Chris Bailey, of Bailey’s travel, challenged Ailles to promise “an end to two-and-a-half hours waiting times to get through on the phone costing 10p a minute”.

Ailles said “yes”, adding Cook had to get to the root cause of the problems that were generating such calls from agents, and to make sure that phones were answered. “We are on a journey and we are trying to turn things round,” he said. “We know we have made errors in the past.”

Speaking to Travel Weekly after his presentation Ailles admitted that Thomas Cook “has lost touch with some of its core fundamentals”. “It is about getting back to doing some sensible things sensibly,” he added.

“It pains me to get some customer letters [of complaint]. We need to live up to our brand values. We have such a large number of areas to look at. I take the view no idea is a bad idea.”

During questioning Ailles was challenged by a delegate to trial offering agent partners rates to allow them to compete with Cook’s online pricing to see if that increased third party sales. Ailles did not rule that out.

He said although he had not seen the figures for the new Co-operative Travel joint-venture he envisaged Cook would be looking at achieving around 20% distribution through third parties.

For some non-mainstream product he said that figure would be “considerably more”. “We are very much open for business,” he told delegates. Cooks’s current level of controlled in-house distribution is thought to well below the 80% rival Tui Travel claims to be achieving.

Ailles said despite the three profit warnings Cook has been forced to issue which, prompted the departure of Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, the firm would still make £320 million profit this year. He said divisions in other parts of the world like Scandinavia were trading well and it was the UK arm that needed turning around.

“We have worked pretty hard restructuring the management team after Manny and Ian (Derbyshire) left. There is no silver bullet. What we have got to do as an organisation is step up to the plate across a whole range of activities and that’s what you will see us doing in the next few months.

“We continue to have a strong commitment to the high street and see this as allowing us to have an interaction with the customer in a way you can never do online. We believe, and are very keen, to strengthen the knowledge and experience of the agent in interfacing with the customer.

“We have just done a joint venture with the Co-op that endorses all that I have said; we will stay in the high street, we have had a strong commercial relationship with the Co-op and we will continue to utilise the Co-op name on the high street. But it’s important you understand that our relationship is as important as it ever was.”

Asked about Cook’s low share price, which at one point during the last month valued it at below the profit level forecast for this year, he said: “It’s ridiculous, but we are in a strange market and have a hugely volatile stock market.”