Thomas Cook sells forex business
THOMAS Cook has sold its corporate foreign exchange business for £4.5m, as part of its continued drive to pay down debts and turn itself around.
The travel firm announced yesterday it has offloaded Thomas Cook Corporate Foreign Exchange to Moneycorp, a rival operator owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Special Opportunities Fund.
However, it will continue to run its consumer holiday money foreign exchange business, which is available through its retail stores and on its website.
Chief executive Harriet Green said the sale “will allow us to focus more on our core retail customer base and continue to deliver our profitable growth strategy”.
The former Premier Farnell boss embarked on a three-year plan reshaping the business following her appointment last year, and has since moved to close 200 high street shops and cut 2,500 jobs in parts of the business deemed to be non-core.
In October the 172-year-old company ditched its globe-share logo and famous slogan “Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it” in a favour of a sunny heart logo and the simpler tagline – Let’s Go! – which Green said would help unify the brands.
The firm is aiming to cut £400m of costs by 2015.