HOW good are City analysts? I mean, how well can they know an industry they’ve never worked in?
A year ago, the City was singing Thomson’s praises, now they brand the company a dead duck.
Nothing much has changed at Thomson since the days they were privately owned so why weren’t the danger signals picked up then? They were certainly there. Not only was the public wrongly advised by the City to buy Thomson shares, but now the City is crucifying the loyal investor even further by making sure that Thomson is starved of cash for the next two years.
What nonsense. Do they really believe that Roger Burnell does not know what has gone wrong and how it needs to be put right?
Will a new man do any better or, will the fact that the wheel is about to turn once more mean that anyone getting the job will be able to boast that they has turned the company around?
I mean, how well did Francis Baron do for First Choice? What did he know about the travel industry and does anyone remember him now.
Nothing can stay at the top forever and companies, like empires, rise and fall – some more slowly than others. AB Airlines had a lot of City backing but the City slickers were very wrong there too. So, how good a track record have the analysts themselves got?
I’ll bet there are many at Thomson who rue the day they ever got involved with the city.
As a private company they ruled the industry, slashing and burning whenever and wherever they saw fit.
Now they have to dance to the money men’s tune.
The city has done nothing for the travel industry except destroy jobs and force consolidation so that a few people could make a lot of money.
The short termism that has been forced on an industry, which had a short-term mentality anyway, has meant no improvement in how we work or in what we produce.
We may not send clients to so many unfinished hotels now but, other than that, we behave in exactly the same way as we did 20 years ago.
And now that Airtours has ‘arrived’ you can be sure that the very respectability to which it probably aspires is what will begin to send the company on the downward turn of the wheel.
It’s Airtours’ brashness and aggression that has kept it at the top of the growth league.
As soon as it goes for quality and respectability or moves up from the bottom rung of the Observer, Guardian and Telegraph Travel Company Awards ladder then the beginning of its fall from City grace will commence.
We also forget how a publicly quoted company’s share price determines what it can and cannot do.
Who would have ever thought the market leaders would go cap in hand to the Civil Aviation Authority asking to be treated more leniently than the rest of us over the 5% asset to turnover ratio?
Why should they be treated differently from us, when the analysts themselves are casting doubts over Thomson’s ability to fund any further expansion?
It’s interesting to note that, large or small, we all have the same problems. No-one is immune to life’s ups and downs.
No company can walk on water.