Cosmos Holidays is to become known as Monarch as the airline and tour operator moves to operating a single brand strategy.
The Cosmos name will continue to be used by Cosmos Tours, which trades as Cosmos Tours and Cruises, a separate company not a part of last year’s rescue of Monarch by Greybull Capital.
Other trade-facing brands Avro, the seat-only broker and bed bank somewhere2stay.com, will also operate under the Monarch name as part of the move.
A new agent portal, monarchagents.co.uk, will be developed ready for launch before the end of the year.
The new branding strategy will also see all of Monarch’s holiday product aligned with its flying programme and used third party carriers phased out.
As part of the Greybull refinancing, clinched on October 24 last year, Monarch shed 700 jobs and said it would stop long-haul flying to concentrate on core short-haul routes to European beach, city and ski destinations.
Andrew Swaffield (pictured), chief executive of Monarch Group, said: “For almost 50 years the Monarch name has stood for quality, value and excellent service.
“Now is the right time for us to consolidate all of our travel products under one brand.”
Richard Francis, managing director of Monarch Tour Operations, added: “From now on we will be able to give our trade partners and their customers one integrated programme of flights, holidays and hotels.
“We believe that bringing the Monarch brand into the trade for the first time, ad putting all of our products under this one well-established brand, provides clarity and consistency for our trade partners and their customers.”
Swaffield said the move was not formally discussed with trade partners but anecdotal feedback from agent partners gave it the confidence it was the right decision.
He said agents had told it the Cosmos brand was hard to differentiate and was not being chosen by customers as much as sold to them by agents.
Trade sales represent up to 15% of Monarch Group’s business and Swaffield said he expected this to remain unchanged and would be happy to see it rise.
Cosmos Tours announced it is to continue using the Cosmos name and has refreshed its logo.
The tweaked logo is being rolled out across all marketing materials and second edition 2016 brochures.
Managing director Alan MacLean said the brand was being kept because of its “incredible heritage”.
The Cosmos name in the UK dates back to 1961 when the business started as a coach operator offering coach and air tours to Europe from a small office in south London.