The Thomas Cook group CEO has vehemently denied that the Thomas Cook/Co-operative Travel merger is in fact a thinly-veiled “takeover” – and he promised the UK’s largest retail chain would not “bully” third party suppliers.
“The Co-operative have two board positions in the JV and will get another when Midlands Co-op comes on board. We will have four so they will be adequately represented.
Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “We believe in the Co-operative brand and we wanted access to it. And we want to see it continue going forward.”
He confirmed that all but a couple of the Going Places stores would be rebranded as Co-operative Travel shops, with “one or two” becoming Thomas Cook outlets.
“If Co-op agents want some endorsement that we are not going to get rid of the Co-operative Travel brand, that should be it.”
Asked how Co-operative Travel agents would feel about losing their independence to directionally sell more Thomas Cook holidays, he said: “Actually, ours and the Co-op’s propositions are actually very similar. We are a retail proposition, we’re the number one cruise retailers and we sell lots of third party operators, just as they do.
“Whenever a customer comes in, the primary requirement is that we match their needs. If we can sell them a Thomas Cook holiday to do that, then great, but we sell thousands of other holidays as well.”
Fontenla-Novoa said “We’re bound to renegotiate all the deals that we and the Co-operative have with other suppliers. We are coming into the new season and once the competition authorities have given their approval we will start those talks. But we are not going to bully them.”
Co-operative Group Peter Marks also pledged that the merged retail operation will support third parties, saying, “Independent tour operators will still be able to sell their products through our stores.”