WEBVTT - Thomas Cook 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.520 Welcome to Business on the Brink, a production from I 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:14.040 Heart Radio and How Stuff Works. I found out long 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.959 ago it's a long way down the Holiday Road, and 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.239 six hundred thousand people learned that same lesson when a 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.520 famous travel company suddenly went out of business. The collapse 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.880 required the British government to figure out how to get 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.400 more than one hundred thousand citizens back home. This is 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:44.040 Thomas Cook on Business on the Brink. Hi, everybody on 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.919 Jonathan Stricklin and I'm Ariel Casting, And this week we 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:51.000 aren't doing a listener suggestion. We're doing one that was 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.360 recently in the news when we were deciding to record this. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.680 It's a monumental story, one that also I think a 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.560 lot of Americans, like you and I weren't. You know, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.600 we probably weren't really that familiar with this company. I 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.560 certainly I was not either. This was actually this is 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.360 a company, Thomas Cook is a company that to any 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.960 listeners in the UK, you guys know all about this, 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.399 but we hadn't really heard about it. In fact, I 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.679 remember it was used as sort of a joke in 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:23.920 a couple of British series that I watched, and I 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.880 had no idea just went right over your head exactly. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.480 And it was one of those those regionalized bits of 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.160 humor that did not translate to me even though they 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.959 were speaking English. And it's weird too because the Thomas 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.720 Cook Group, which is what the company was called once 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:45.080 they shut down, uh, the oldest long standing travel agency ever. Yeah, 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.120 more than a century old. And they did do excursions 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:53.560 all over the world. So they were just most popular 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.200 in UK, which is where they started. Yeah. And in fact, 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:01.760 their founder, by no surprise, was named Thomas Cook Group. No, 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.560 he was named Thomas Cook and the company was named 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.679 Thomas Cook at first. Yes, So Thomas Cook started off 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.800 not as someone who was planning out holidays for his 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.320 fellow British citizens to go trapesing about in Tunisia. That 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.440 was not the purpose. Uh, that's not how he got started. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.600 He got started on a much more sober endeavor. Oh 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.000 I see you did there. That's very clever, Jonathan. Yes. Uh, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.280 Thomas Cook was a huge fan of temperance. He did 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.360 not like alcohol and in fact, he wasn't even like 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.720 a jet setter. He was a cabinet maker and a 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:46.320 former Baptist preacher. Yes, And he started his career as 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:51.160 a travel agent by getting Temperance supporters around England by 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.760 train to their meetings. There were twelve mile trips, one 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.320 day excursions. Very small, yeah, but this was back in 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:03.200 eighteen forty one, and while the trips were small, the 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:05.720 number of people was pretty large. He was getting up 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.880 to people to go on some of these trips. And 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:11.720 what it really came down to is that you're talking 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:13.760 about a lot of people who had not had any 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.480 experience booking any sort of travel, So to them it 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.880 was extremely intimidating, and he, because of his passion for 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.680 the cause, was willing to take on the burden of 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.560 responsibility to do all that work of the actual booking 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.600 of tickets. So he handled all of that on behalf 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.560 of the people, and that way he could ensure that 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.280 he would get a passionate crowd to show up to 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.960 these temperance gatherings and they wouldn't you know, the the 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.720 the barrier of getting on a train and figure out 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.840 where you're going and everything that was lifted off of 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.000 them so they were more likely to participate. He he 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.920 took that passion for getting these these people to these 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.480 good causes, what he considered good causes at least I'm 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.320 not gonna say it's not a good cause. All I'm 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.400 saying is that there's one drinker in this podcast, and 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:09.240 it's not me. Look, just because you're allergic and and 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.280 and by drinker, I mean Ariel occasionally as a drink, 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.279 and then Jonathan laughs at me. He expanded his trips 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.760 to Sunday schools. So now he was organizing trips for 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.600 people to get to temperance meetings and Sunday school where 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:27.719 those kids were getting lit off the sacramental line. No no, 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.880 so he Yeah, this is obviously very modest, But what 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.560 happened was that he began to learn that he was 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.640 really good at this. He was good at organizing all 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.560 these details. He was good at handling this and keeping 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.520 stuff on track for other people, and he was starting 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.800 to see the promise of this being a let's say, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.440 more viable career than making cabinets. Yep. So he he 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:59.040 ran his very first commercial trip in all the way 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.560 to the far off land of Liverpool. Yeah, he was 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.160 one years too early for the Beatles, so everyone was 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.720 very disappointed. I know, I asked for a refund. So 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.960 by eighteen forty six he began offering tour trips to 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.599 Scotland and made a lot of money by not taking 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.640 anyone back out n till they paid twice as much. 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.479 It seems smart to me. No, I'm just that's me 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.600 being totally snouted. It still sounds smart to me. He 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.120 He also that these were trips where people were taking 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.400 train and steamboat trips, so again like he's coordinating multiple 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.040 legs of a trip, something that a lot of people 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.720 would have found intimidating or maybe even impossible to arrange. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.440 You know, you might not even know where to turn 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.880 back in the mid nineteenth century without the internet. Yeah, 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.440 there's no internet, you know. In fact, trains and steamboats 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.880 are pretty darn neew themselves. And on top of that, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:58.040 he began to produce guide books so that people would 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.600 know more about the location they were going to visit, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.000 and he would answer very important questions such as is 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.000 it safe for ladies to travel to the Highlands. That 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.880 is not a joke. That really was one of the chapters. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.440 It is important to know I have seen Outlander. Well, 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:19.400 he moved from transportation for these trips to actual tours, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.159 so kind of yes, ending the guide books, Yes, yeah, 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.120 this would be eight So now you could book an 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.520 entire inclusive tour. And again, like he was seeing the 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.719 things that people really liked about this sort of this 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.520 proto travel agency that had grown kind of organically. They 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.800 liked the fact that they could go to places and 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.000 have these experiences, and they liked being able to put 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.520 more of the planning side on somebody else so they 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.120 could just enjoy their trip. It's a holiday, you wanted 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.719 to be relaxing. Well, his first year Pean tour started 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.920 in England and ended at the International Exhibition in Paris. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.600 End to facilitate multi country travel, he started offering foreign 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:09.560 exchange services. Yeah, so pretty pretty forward thinking at this point. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.480 And then he began to offer holiday packages, which is 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.320 kind of what we would think of for your typical 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.520 travel agent these days. Like that's the kind of thing 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:23.080 where you know, it's the transportation, hotel and meals exactly 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.320 and uh and so again taking all that burden off 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.080 the individuals so they can just enjoy their trip. In 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.480 eighteen sixty five, he opened a store in Fleet Street, London, 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.560 just down the down the way from a charming barbershop. 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.160 Don't try the pies. Uh, And he had his son 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.840 John start working with him. Yes, and uh, they also 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:53.520 would sell travel accessories. They also would offer coupons with 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.200 with hotels that they had partnered with, so that that 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:02.520 way they could direct business to specific facilities for a 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.280 discounted price, and those hotels would do things like offer 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.640 free meals and such. Yeah. So this was one of 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.120 those deals where because of he was working in such 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:17.560 volume he could help out hotels in distant places, they 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.440 could help him out by cutting him a deal. Uh, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:22.960 this would turn out like we're still talking about the 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.000 early early days of this company. But when you sit 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.120 there and think about this, these relationships between a travel 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:33.040 agency and these other parties like hotels, you start to 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.160 see where the potential impact is going to be when 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.800 we get to the sad part of the story where 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.440 the company is unraveling. Yeah, but we're not there yet. No, 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.600 we cut a couple of centuries to go, so a 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.760 century a century. In eighteen sixty six, they started offering 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.760 tours to the US. Yeah, I started having to provide 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.720 English to American interpreters so that people can understand each other. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.800 Very important living in the South, where they say the 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.320 Southern accent is close to an old English accent, which 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.760 probably was not that old anymore. Uh, well, at that 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.560 point it was a newer English accent. You needed people 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.400 interpreters in the South because we can't hear as fast 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.959 as other people talk. It's true, it's true, we can't 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.600 think as fast as other people talked to In eighteen 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.640 seventy one, they partnered with an American What do you 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.120 mean we can't think as fast as the other people talk. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.480 Point case. In eighteen seventy one they partnered with an 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.440 American businessman to help with their US tours, but it 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.920 was not a good partnership and it eventually ended. Yes, 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.000 I just wanted to put that out there. Uh, it 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.640 is a jump ahead. Yeah. Also in eighteen seventy three 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.280 they had a London to London tour, which sounds like 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.120 it would be super short, but instead it was London 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.960 to London via the rest of the world. Was it 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:48.720 in a hot air balloon like around the world in 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:55.319 eighty days? It was not. It cost two hundred guineas pigs. No, 0:09:55.480 --> 0:10:01.280 not like a guinea was one pound one shilling. Because 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.200 the English have determined that the monetary transaction should be 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.960 as confusing as it possibly can be. By this time, 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.480 Thomas's son John was a partner. They changed the name 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.880 of the company to Thomas Cook and Son, and John 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.400 was focusing a lot on the commercial end, because Thomas 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.360 was really good at organizing all this, but not so 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.800 much advertising. Yeah, and uh, John was getting more and 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.280 more frustrated about that, so that by essentially said you 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.920 know what, Dad, you really you've earned yourself arrest. Go 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:39.800 have a stiff drink. Oh oh, I almost forgot about 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.640 the temperance stuff. Yeah. He never stopped with that opinion. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.079 So John ended up taking over the business. Thomas stepped down, 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.160 and John had sons of his own who also joined 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.640 the family business, three of them, and they were really 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.920 good at running it. Uh. Under John and his sons, 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.560 they started delving into military transport, postal transport, and tours 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.880 to the Middle East. Within ten years they had locations 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.600 all around the world and a couple of years after 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:11.319 that they had sold over three million tickets. Wow, so 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.480 getting towards the end of the nineteenth century. In eighteen 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:20.480 nineties six, they then also got a great privilege, a 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.600 great honor. They were named the official travel agent for 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.400 the Olympics in Athens, which would be the first modern 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.840 version of the Olympics. That's a pretty big milestone. I 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.559 think it's a great thing to have put on your brochures. 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.719 I agree. In nineteen they started delving inte luxuries such 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.520 as recreational air travel, and things were going really well. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.800 And that's the end of the story. I don't we 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.680 got we got a lot of sad stuff to go through. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.480 But it's actually a very complicated story. So before we 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.480 get into that, I recommend we take a little break good. 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:04.000 I need a stiff drink, so we're back Ariels a 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.320 little tipsy. But we're now going to continue with the 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.160 story of Thomas Cook. By the time we get into 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:16.440 the nineteen twenties, uh, the grandsons of Thomas Cook, John's 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.320 three sons. Yes, at that time, I think they in turn, 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:25.280 we're ready to retire, right, so the family business was 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.480 about to no longer be a family business. That is correct. 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:35.520 They sold Thomas Cook, Oh goodness, to the Compania International 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:41.480 de grand espress Europeans. That was horrible. It was a 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.520 good attempt at our French accent. I haven't done French 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.559 since seventh grade. Yeah no, Well, there's that whole Renaissance 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.880 festival time where you played a French person accent and 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:58.319 actual communication are different things. So yes, so this French 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.960 company comes in and c i w L and they 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:07.200 purchase the Thomas Cook Company. Some people say that the 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.960 reason why this happened was that the Cook's grandsons were 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:15.360 concerned with the financial health long term health of the 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.079 Thomas Cook Company, and that they wanted to get out 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.240 while the getting was good. Uh. C i w L 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:27.840 had another high profile company under like a name and 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:33.360 travel that is infamous, right, that would be the Orient Express. 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.920 I would say it's almost more infamous in literature, yes, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.079 because murder on the Orient Express obviously, but yes, as 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.520 the Orient Express us the same company that owns the 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.400 Orient Express But the c i w L would not 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:52.240 hold on to Thomas Cook for very long, not as 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.160 long as the family owned it. No, within less than 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:02.880 in less than twenty years, Germany occupied Belgium, Yes, which 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.600 is where the headquarters for c i w L were. 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.280 And and that was because World War two is happening, 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.560 and the British government stepped in and nationalized Thomas Cook, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.600 folding it into British Railways. Yeah, and this is not 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:18.960 that different from what the United States did in the 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.720 outbreak of World War one when they essentially appropriate all 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:24.800 the radio stations, which is how we got our c 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.880 A right, So, which is again you you can kind 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.240 of understand it from a national security standpoint, right, you 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:39.520 cannot have a major transportation company being operated by a 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.200 foreign power during a time of war. It just doesn't 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.880 it doesn't make sense from a national security standpoint. So 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:50.560 that is why the UK government nationalized Thomas Cook. Well, 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.760 and after that because after war people want to save money. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.680 You know, they started losing income, they started losing revenues 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.960 because people in more economical travel packages and Thomas Cook 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.160 did sort of focus on the middle class and providing 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:13.880 reasonably priced Yeah, but they were having a hard time 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.760 keeping up with this this cheaper demand. And on top 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.360 of that, you know their government run governments are slow 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.560 to make change. Yeah, governments don't have to respond to 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.800 the market the same way that a private company would. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.080 And so there were some really some big issues with 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:36.800 how the government was running this. Um. You know, their 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.280 goal was not two They had different priorities than a 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.840 private company would. So it's not that it was necessarily worse, 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.000 it was just different and not necessarily what customers were 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:53.040 wanting exactly. So that problem got solved when a bank, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.600 a hotel, restaurant group, and an auto group walk into 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.240 a bar. Yeah why the long face. Yeah, they they 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:05.240 banded together and they decided that they would purchase essentially 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.720 that Thomas Cook from the British government, making it a 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.200 private company. Again. That was in the nineteen seventies, and 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.080 this was again where the company was mainly focused on 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.160 these all inclusive packages. Right, you you buy the whole 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.200 holiday from Thomas Cook and you don't have to worry 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.560 about anything. And because you had the auto company, you 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.920 had the hotel and restaurant company, you had a bank 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.000 in there, they were able to meet a lot of 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.240 those with their own resources, and whatever they didn't have, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.640 they could end up partnering with other companies. It just 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.160 makes everything more streamlined. In the eighties, Thomas Cook had 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.040 a pretty big presence in the US due to travelers checks, 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.440 because they were actually one of the they were one 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.840 of the first companies to ever operate travelers checks, or 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.880 or a precursor to them. Yeah, they were so big 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.080 that they even opened a computer center in the United States, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.520 United States, and yet I still had heard of that. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.560 I was about to say, by the early nine nineties, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.880 they were one of the world's leading for and exchange retailers. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.800 They had acquired a company called Deek International, which got 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.080 them to that point, and then they were acquired by 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.439 a different combo group of businesses, so the the hotel, 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.679 restaurant group, the bank and the auto company sold it 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:26.360 to a different bank and travel conglomerate company this time 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.560 group of companies, this time to West Dutch Land Space. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.200 That's Deutsche LANs Bunk. Listen, why don't you let me 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.560 say it if you could say it better West LB 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.200 and the LTU group, which was an airline like it's 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:46.520 Dutch instead of Deutsche. Uh. They then acquired a bank subsidiary, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.719 enter Payment Services Limited in nine and that made them 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.080 the largest supplier of travelers checks outside the United States. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.480 And then they sold their travel management business to m X, 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.800 which gave a mex about tempers of Thomas Cook's annual revenue. 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:08.879 They really, uh, we're deciding they needed to start folk streamlining. Yeah, 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.359 and when we've seen this many times where a company, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.560 you know, it diversifies to the point where it realizes, no, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.000 now we need to cut back on some areas because 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.359 we've lost so much focus that we're not able to 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.040 function properly. Well, this is just the tip of their 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.080 going back to a single focus. Oh yeah, no, we're 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.480 gonna it gets a lot worse before it could. Well, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.199 it doesn't get better, but spoiler alert, it does not 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.040 get better. It just keeps getting worse. Well, it gets 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.760 slightly better for a little bit. Because LTU, the airline 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.800 that was in partnership with west lb in owning Thomas 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.320 Cooke about out and so West Alby bought a whole 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.240 bunch of different travel operations, airlines and tour groups and 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.160 things like that and rolled them all into the company 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.440 under the brand JMC for John Mason Cook, Thomas Cook's son, 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.720 and then took those properties and made their own airline. Yeah. Uh, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:05.040 this would also end up being a big part of 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:10.040 the problem in a few years. It certainly would. So uh. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.919 They also ended up launching a website in n and 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.600 we're one of the first companies, in fact, the first 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.600 travel agency in the UK to offer travel packages that 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.399 you could purchase online. So that a lot of these companies, 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.680 when we talk about them, that this is the sort 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.720 of thing that we tend to to point out and 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:35.320 say moment right that they failed to adapt to changing times, 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.119 at least as far as web access. The web, the 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.439 ability to purchase things on Thomas Cook was on the 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.680 front line. Yeah, but other elements of that changing landscape 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.120 would be things they could not compete with. Exactly. Once 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.600 we reached the two thousands, Thomas Cook decided to pare 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.960 down their focus to just travel. So they sold their 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.280 financial division service and they sold their foreign exchange service 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:03.000 to Travel X, and so then travel X also would 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.320 be able to use the Thomas Cook branding on their 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.760 checks for five years as part of this deal. So 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.960 it was smart, yeah, kind of trading on that name also, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.600 just to make that transition a little less rocky for 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.679 anyone who was actually using those things, So that that 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.760 helped a bit. That same year they finalized the sales 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.760 of the divisions, they also got acquired again again by 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.760 Condor and Necroment Touristic a G in Germany. Why did 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.280 you give the easy one? To say, because I saw 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.600 it ahead of time and I jumped on it. So 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.959 they became Thomas Cook a G at this point. And 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:45.920 to me, it's amazing how many times this company had 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:50.240 been through these different mergers and acquisitions. They're not done yet. 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:52.960 But before we get to their next acquisition, they launched 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.600 the airline in two thousand three officially, yes, Thomas Cook Airlines. 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.680 And then we get back into the mergers, acquisitions and 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:04.040 names ages. This one actually is possibly the most important 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.440 one of all of Thomas Cook's history. Uh. In two 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.600 thousand seven, they merged with another company they might Travel 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.520 Group PLC. And this time the company would be known 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.240 as Thomas Cook Group p l c. The name that 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.280 they ended with, and this was it was meant to 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.760 expand the reach of Thomas Cook to new regions that 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.000 otherwise they had not had a lot of presence in, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.360 like Scandinavian countries, and they were doing it in an 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:37.520 effort to also kind of consolidate things and ultimately save 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.000 some money. Yeah, they're hoping these moves would save them 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.800 about seventy five million pounds a year. Yeah. And then 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:49.159 they also merged operations with an organization called Cooperative Group 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:55.000 and the Midlands Cooperative Society. And by combining all these 0:21:55.040 --> 0:22:00.879 they became the largest travel agency exactly, the largest chain 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:04.040 of travel agencies in the United Kingdom. They had more 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:08.000 than twelve hundred physical shops, most of them located in 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.240 what the Brits called the high streets. High streets are 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:17.399 like the shopping districts. But here's the problem. We've seen 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.520 over and over again how mergers and acquisitions often the 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:26.240 process is an incredibly expensive one, and often you're also 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:32.280 looking at combining the debt of two, sometimes very large organizations, 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.080 which means you've got even more debt to deal with. 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.320 That was the case with this merger. Well, and then 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.760 on top of it, you've got the travel industry changing 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.520 to more online and they've got all of these shops. Yeah, 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:50.399 so you've got overhead, You've got a billion dollars in 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:54.199 debt by about that's about twice as much as what 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.800 Thomas Cook had in two thousand seven. Before, just as 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.320 this merger was taking place, you had the fact that 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.680 online it wasn't just that you could book things online. 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.920 A lot of the grunt work that travel agents would 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:13.560 do had become much easier to do yourself online. And 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:17.000 that's true. So yeah, so, like the reason why the 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:19.719 average person would go to a travel agent was largely 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:24.120 because I find this process intimidating. I want to hand 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:26.920 it off to someone who knows what they're looking for. 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:31.479 They already know the the reputable places, but with the 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:35.680 Internet suddenly doing that research became much easier, and in fact, 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:40.720 for a certain type of person, it's fun. I sometimes 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.880 enjoy it. Lately, from my last couple of trips, I've 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:48.719 used a travel agent because it's it's I mean, they 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:53.560 don't cost me anything. Usually they get paid through their 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:55.879 partnerships at hotels and things like that, and so I 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.240 find it much more relaxing to say, here's what I want, 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.679 find me something within my budget. Yeah, I would have 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:05.760 never stated that amazing Murder Hotel if I had done that. 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:09.200 You're gonna have to tell me more about that. Let's 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:17.040 take a quick break, all right, we're we're now that 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:20.080 I've caught Aerial up on Murder Hotel, I'm never going 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:23.560 to sleep again. Yeah, she's been hitting the drink twice 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:28.480 as hard. Now we're gonna finish up and talk about 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:33.240 the precipitous drop off the brink that Thomas Cook went through. 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:36.920 And it was this was something that happened so suddenly 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:39.680 that it took a lot of people by complete surprise. 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:41.960 Even even people who had said, yeah, I knew that 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:45.639 they weren't doing well financially, were shocked at how fast 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.040 this unraveled? Well, you never think that somebody's just going 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:51.480 to close overnight when they've got tons of people all 0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:54.800 around the globe. So how we got there? In two 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:58.200 thousand seven, Like we said before the break, they had 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:02.360 more brick and mortar location than any other travel retailer, right, 0:25:02.680 --> 0:25:06.680 but the travel industry as a whole was shifting online 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:10.359 so quickly that that was not an asset. It was 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:13.320