The UK-based travel company, Thomas Cook, has announced pre-tax losses of £485.3 million for the year ended September 30, 2012, from a loss of £398.2 million reported for the earlier year.
The company revenue has decreased to £9.5 billion for 2012, from £9.8 billion in the same period last year. The increasing annual losses have been explained as partly due to reduced capacity and higher fuel costs.
Harriet Green, the new chief executive officer of Thomas Cook, said, ‘In 2012 over 23 million customers enjoyed their holidays with us, 50 percent of whom went on an independent or flexible holiday. Through building on our core product strengths to further improve our proposition with new and different products, we have a significant opportunity to unlock the full potential of our brands and attract more customers.
As we develop our Business Transformation plans we will continue to place our customers and employees at the very centre of our business.
Through leveraging existing best practice and by focusing on efficiency, harnessing the power of technology and delivering on our commitments we are addressing the most immediate challenges facing the Group and creating a platform for future growth.
These results reflect the major issues that Thomas Cook faced last year, but they mask the material improvement that we made in the fourth quarter. Our brand has demonstrated its strength by recovering all the ground lost during last year’s difficulties and we have identified significant further efficiency improvements.
The year ahead is the initial stage in this recovery and as we embark upon our first year of Business Transformation, we are optimistic about the future and look forward to updating you on our full plans and additional financial benefits in the spring of 2013.’
