Thomas Cook collapses blaming Brexit. When will the leavers admit they've made a mistake?

[JustOneLastThing]

Another one bites the dust. Boris is silent. Thomas Cook have blamed Brexit uncertainty. 9,000 UK jobs lost. All for blue passports and 'sovereignty'. How many more companies will keel over because of this?

Thoughts? Any brexiters want to give me their views?

MrsTerryPratchett Do you think that’s a new thing? We had them thoughts during many recessions and the more recent financial crash, ( were we in the EU then ? )

I didn't mean homelessness, I meant being sent back to EU countries of origin.

And actually homelessness isn't caused by recession, it's caused by government policy, hence how we pretty much ended it after the Rough Sleepers Initiative and how some countries have almost none, good times or bad.

MrsTerryPratchett So when interest rates went up to 15% in the 80’s, we nearly lost our home.

I'm sorry that almost happened. Worrying about things like that is horrible.

However, I'm talking about families being sent to EU countries they haven't lived in in decades in some cases when they have made a home in the UK and raised families.

Would you like the worry of moving country?

No one needs travel companies anymore.

I don't think that's the case. Just no one needs travel companies like Thomas Cook anymore. Which is a different proposition. Although if it translates into "no one needs comapnies whose directors get whopping bonuses when the company posts a loss", I'd take it at a pinch.

MrsTerryPratchett The EU could easily agree citizens rights with the U.K. if they wanted too

Hester54 The UK could easily agree citizens rights with the E.U. if they wanted too

Well it’s in the press so it must be true.

Funny how much the owners milked it dry before they let it collapse.

Just remember.

Keep repeating “brexit” whenever whatever goes wrong.

DGR everything can be booked and organized without a travel agent. Travel agents are from the 80s when they were the only ones with access to airlines, hotels, package holidays, excursions. Who needs them? Nowhere as many people use them now. We used to go in sit and plan a trip, get ideas, get travellers cheque’s. Not anymore. They are a thing of the past. Time to move on.

DGR everything can be booked and organized without a travel agent. Travel agents are from the 80s when they were the only ones with access to airlines, hotels, package holidays, excursions. Who needs them? Nowhere as many people use them now. We used to go in sit and plan a trip, get ideas, get travellers cheque’s. Not anymore. They are a thing of the past. Time to move on.

The past 35 years have taught me how glacial progress can be. I was working on parts of the specifications for how email works as part of my degree in 1985 (RFC974) and am still having to speak to people who "don't do email".

There will always be a place for a curated travel experience. Whether that place is on a high street next to a butchers and bookmakers is another matter. It certainly won't be a volume business. But then (checks what I wrote) I never said it would.

Same way there are still people who shoe and saddle horses. Not as common as 100 years ago. But also not extinct.

I know others have mentioned this and I won't say how I voted but I work for a very prestigious travel company doing online advertising. The market had slowed down as people are scared what will happen if we leave whilst they're traveling and rightly so. However all these companies are obsessed with targeting the 'cheap' market.

When you have a look at the analytics they just target cheap this cheap that budget budget, low cost and so do all the other travel companies causing high competition and driving prices into the floor. I would largely attribute this factor to the fail of Thomas Cook.

Brexit has definitely played a part in the travel market of 'uncertainty' unfortunately this happening to another travel company post vote (Abercrombie and kent have just been saved) and the scares in Cuba right now with brits getting held hostage I am not surprised travel companies will be seeing slight declines in people wanting to book.

People are going off cheap holidays and budget hotels abroad and with the trend changing these companies will lose money.

I am a remainer but you can't blame leavers for Brexit uncertainty! This is down to the Tory government who called the referendum and still haven't resolved it!

You can blame leave voters. It's what they voted for. I blame them, all of them. They have put us in this mess, and many still think that the sun shines out of Boris' backside. Surveys still put him and the conservatives ahead, you do know that.

Sorry but I blame the voters.

Unfortunately the internet has been good for somethings, but very bad for a lot of other things

You could say that about virtually everything.

In the mid 1800's, the railways were good for business and people, but bad for canal workers/owners.

In the 1980's supermarkets and retail parks were good for shoppers but bad for small independent shops.

It's just evolution. Things change. People/businesses have to change too.

Thomas Cook didn't adapt quickly enough. Keeping a loss making high st travel agent when most other chains had closed was madness. Buying up the Going Places chain when it was close to failure was madness.

It had been a financial basket case for several years, laden with huge debts it couldn't service.

Ironically, sales had started to rise over the past couple of years (despite the Brexit gloom-mongers), but it just wasn't enough to cover the ever increasing losses from the High St travel agent chain and service its debts.

Even without Brexit, it would probably have failed.

People are going off cheap holidays and budget hotels abroad and with the trend changing these companies will lose money.

I saw some interesting statistics a few months ago about cruise holidays. Apparently, it's a rapidly growing market. More and more ships being built, fleet sizes increasing. That shows that people don't just want cheap beach holidays. There are plenty of people with money to spend and who are willing to spend it on experiences, luxury, service, etc.

The "pile it high, sell it cheap" based businesses nearly always fail in the end. Whether it's holidays, groceries, electrical items, etc. If your business plan is simply to out-compete on price, sooner or later, someone else will undercut you to take that fickle market and you'll be left with nothing.

If my shitty company went under, I'd blame someone else too

The "pile it high, sell it cheap" based businesses nearly always fail in the end.

That's very true just to back it up, the company I work for charge around an average of £8000 PP for a holiday but can take as much as a few hundred thousand in 1 booking we have around 600 staff global and growing. We are having absolutely no turn over issues and growing very healthily. Business was slower during the first leaving EU date but picked up immediately after that passed.

The "pile it high, sell it cheap" based businesses nearly always fail in the end.

If there's no value being added, then yes. The advent of the internet removed a lot of "value" that businesses had previously been adding making them unviable. Even now, there are market sectors where the value business are adding is shrinking as a simple function of demographics.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, value will suddenly appear and start growing. And it should go without saying that good businesspeople are the ones who can spot the differences and divest and invest appropriately.

All Businesses have to adapt to changing markets and changing technology.
Many jobs have changed and no longer exist, or have been automated.
The fact that TC lasted all this time was amazing.
I do sometimes book holidays through an agent, but on-line, and not through a high street travel agent.
We had a major holiday away this year. I actually considered Tui only flights, because the destination airport is not one that other airlines go to, direct from the UK. I did not book with them, however, because the flights were just once a week, and no alternative if something went wrong.
Companies such as Expedia and Opodo will find flights over the internet; Local sites will find hotels, and trip advisor will give reviews.
Nowadays, people may want more specialist individual tailored holidays, so there is always a place for travel agents, but fewer actual shops.
In the case of TC, it seems they took on massive debt, from which they could not recover.

In the case of TC, it seems they took on massive debt, from which they could not recover.

Well, not before they paid out director bonuses, of course.

Brexit may have played a part, but these historic big travel firms have been going bust for years, some long before Brexit was even thought of, such as Airtours (Going Places travel agent chain) about 12 years ago. Thomson was a financial basket case until it was bought by TUI who promptly closed most of their Lunn Poly High St travel agents chain shops. Perhaps the TC management should have rationalised their business years ago, and closed the loss making travel agent High St shops?

Well, not before they paid out director bonuses, of course.

That’s so shocking. Why was that allowed to happen? It’s like Fred the Shred being given vast bonuses when the bank he was supposed to be running was failing.

That’s so shocking. Why was that allowed to happen?

Why not ? No law against it. But it pretty much did for any hope of a government bailout (not that there was any chance of that anyway). Imagine taxpayers money propping up a company where the directors trousered whopping bonuses in the previous year .....

Humbug.