Six months into a stent as managing director of Thomas Cook’s UK outfit, Reto Wilhelm returns to Switzerland. Set to resume control of the East-West region, Wilhelm supposedly left UK for personal reasons.
Now Thomas Cook UK sees COO Peter Fankhauser assuming overall control of UK operations. Interestingly, the duties undertaken by Wilhelm will be split in between the COO and the new managing director of commercialization, Salman Syed. The Travel Weekly report comes on the heels of a group press release announcing the sale of the UK corporate travel business to Mawasem Travel & Tourism Ltd for a consideration of £13.5 million just yesterday.
The UK corporate travel business, Co-operative Travel Management, is part of the joint venture between Thomas Cook, Co-operative Group and Midlands Co-operative. On this news Harriet Green, Group Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Cook Group plc, offered this:
“This sale enables us to further intensify our focus on those key brands and products that are core to delivering our strategy for sustainable profitable growth. We wish Mawasem and the corporate travel team every success.”
Shares of Thomas Cook plc are up on the news. For media or other inquiries about this news readers can contact:
Jenny Peters, Thomas Cook Group +44 (0) 20 7557 6431
Andrew Lorenz, FTI Consulting +44 (0) 7775 641807
