Non-family ownership
With the boom in travel in the Edwardian era, John Mason Cook's sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were even more successful than their father and grandfather had been at running the business. In 1924, the company was renamed Thomas Cook & Son Ltd., after acquiring limited liability status.[4] Frank and Ernest opened a new headquarters in Berkeley Street, London in 1926, but unexpectedly sold the business two years later to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grandes Express Européens, operator of the Orient Express.[2]
After the Fall of France, the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the Germans, and the British assets taken over by the Custodian of Enemy Property.[13]
In 1942, Thomas Cook & Son was sold to Hay's Wharf Cartage Company, which was owned by the four major British railway companies. The company was nationalised along with the railways in 1948, becoming part of the British Transport Commission.[2]
In the late 1950s, the company began showing information films at town halls throughout Britain to promote "foreign holidays", particularly France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. The company sold "inclusive tours" using scheduled airlines but refused to sell cheap package holidays which compromised on quality and service. As a result, the company began to lose market share during the 1950s and 1960s, although its operating profits exceeded £1 million for the first time in 1965. The company was denationalised in 1972, when it was acquired from the British Government by a consortium of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile Association.[14] Midland Bank acquired sole control in 1977.[2]
The company's name was altered from Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd, to Thomas Cook Group Ltd in 1974, and the company began to relocate most of its administrative functions from London to Peterborough in 1977.[15]
During the 1980s, Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the United States, including robust sales of traveller's cheques to regional American banks. The company had enough business critical mass to set up a computer centre near Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Gaffney, Charles Beach, Robin Dennis and Anthony Horne were some of the notable decision-makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought substantial holdings in the company in 1988 and still held that interest when Crimson/Heritage purchased the U.S. division of Thomas Cook for US$1.3 billion in 1989.[16]
In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC, Thomas Cook was sold to the German bank Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) and the charter airline LTU Group for £200 million.[2]
In September 1994, American Express (Amex) bought the corporate travel interests of Thomas Cook Travel Inc. which represented about ten percent of the British company's total revenue. However, Amex was not able to buy the venerable Thomas Cook name; an American Express affiliate, Cook Travel Inc., had been operating under that name since 1991 in the United States.[17]
Due to contractual difficulties, LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During 1996 the company bought short-haul operator Sunworld and European city-breaks tour group Time Off. Within three years the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying Colours and Caledonian Airways into the JMC (for "John Mason Cook") brand.[18]
On 2 February 1999, the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft.[19]
In 2000, the company announced its intention to sell its financial services division, in order to concentrate on tours and holidays.[20] In March 2001 the financial services division was sold to Travelex, who retained the right to use the Thomas Cook brand on traveller's cheques for five years. It sold off its worldwide foreign exchange business to Travelex in November 2000.[21]
In 2001, Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which changed its name to Thomas Cook AG.[22] which then merged with MyTravel Group to become Thomas Cook Group in 2007 and collapsed in 2019.[23][24] The brand was relaunched as Thomas Cook Tourism in 2020.[24]
