BUSINESS NEWS


Fankhauser: ‘[The proposed deal with Fosun] was complicated – that is why it took so long. We were working round the clock from May’


COLLAPSE


THOMAS COOK


I feel responsible, says ‘devastated’ Fankhauser


The former Thomas Cook chief executive was convinced to the last that the company could be saved. He spoke to Ian Taylor


Peter Fankhauser describes presiding over Tomas Cook’s collapse as “devastating” and insists: “I’m responsible.” Te biggest failure in the industry’s


history – the loss of 9,000 jobs, the need to repatriate 150,000 customers and refund 800,000 more – is not a legacy anyone would choose. He says: “It’s devastating. It’s awful. It’s sad. It was for me almost unimaginable. I feel awful for my colleagues, for the suppliers, for our customers who have to wait for their money.” I put it to him that, at botom, the company was brought down by its


72 10 OCTOBER 2019


debt. Fankhauser says: “When I came to the UK I said, ‘If we turn around the UK, we turn around the group’. I knew about the debt. Te aim was to generate enough operating profit to pay down the debt. We managed it one year. We were not fast enough.” Ten, he says: “It becomes a


vicious circle – the more debt, the more servicing costs, the more refinancing costs. It hindered how fast we could be. Imagine we could have invested even half [what it cost to service the debt].” As it was, Cook had to carry


three million customers a year to make travelweekly.co.uk


the £170 million to service its debt. Fankhauser notes: “People say we


should have radically closed shops. When I started, we had more than 1,200. When I finished we had 580.” But he concedes they looked tired, adding: “We did not have the money to refurbish them.” Closing shops was not


straightforward. “We had a presence on the [UK] high street that was still good for 40% of the seats on our airline,” says Fankhauser.


Continued on page 70


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