thomas c ook group plc  
annual report  accounts 2013
t ransformation
the first 365 days strategic report financial statements directors’ report
strategic report
overview 2
at a glance 4
chairman’s statement 8
group chief executive officer’s 
qa 10
market overview 1 6
business overview 1 7
review of strategy 20
our people 25
risk management 30
performance
financial review 32
operating review 42
sustainability 47
financial statements
independent auditors’ report 90
group income statement 93
group statement of other 
comprehensive income 94
group cash ﬂow statement 95
group balance sheet 96
group statement  
of changes in equity 98
notes to the ﬁnancial statements 99
company balance sheet 1 48
company cash ﬂow statement 1 49
company statement  
of changes in equity 1 50
notes to the company  
ﬁnancial statements 1 5 1
shareholder information 1 58
directors’ report
board of directors 50
corporate governance report 52
remuneration report 70
other disclosures 88
1
2
3
full ﬁnancial statements
from page 90
financial highlights
delivering improved ﬁnancial results delivering a stronger balance sheet 
underlying ebit up by £86 million yearonyear net debt reduced from £788 million in 2012
£263m £42 1 m
delivering stronger margins delivering more operational cash ﬂow
underlying gross margin 22 1  
up 80 basis points yearonyear
cash conversion ratio at 48  
on a last 12 months basis
22 1  48
delivering more cost out and 
proﬁt improvement beneﬁts 
cumulative total £194 million 
fy13 target of £1 70 million
£1 94m
financial summary
year ended  
30 september 2013
year ended  
30 september 2012
£m unless otherwise stated underlying statutory underlying statutory
revenue 93 1 5 93 1 5 9 1 95 9 1 95
ebit 263 13 177  170
ebit margin  28 01 1 9 n a
free cash ﬂow 53 53 1 03  1 03
earnings loss per share p 50p 167p 06p 67 2p
net debt 421  421  788 788
operational highlights
  signiﬁcant transformational progress – delivered uk underlying ebit margin of 22 on a likefor
like basis on track to achieve a 5 margin on the same basis by fy1 5
  incremental new product revenue grew by £94 million in fy1 3 including contributions from concept 
hotels partnership hotels and city breaks leading to an increase in our fy1 5 target of incremental 
new product revenue to £700 million
  increased the percentage of holidays booked online to 36 moving towards our target in fy1 5 of 
over 50
  simpliﬁed brand labels from 85 to 30 unifying them under the sunny heart symbol representing 
for our customers personalised and trusted holidays high tech high touch delivery backed by 
market leading international scale and purchasing power
  successful implementation of an internal and disciplined operating model called “the thomas cook 
business system” under this system with our customer at the heart of everything we do as well as 
how and everywhere we do it we aim to bring further professionalism to the high tech high touch 
delivery of trusted personalised products to all our customers supported by a lean and innovative 
operating system that is designed speciﬁcally to serve their needs
throughout this document the term underlying refers to trading results after adjusting statutory results for separately disclosed 
items that are signiﬁcant in understanding the ongoing results of the group separately disclosed items are included on the face of 
the income statement and are detailed in note 7 to the ﬁnancial statements
free cash ﬂow is shown on page 37 and represents operating cash flow less net interest  capital expenditure and separately 
disclosed items thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 1
directors’ report
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financial statements
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strategic report
1
the ﬁrst phase of our exciting transformation is 
well underway
every day we are transforming towards an improved 
more unique business model and have already 
delivered some signiﬁcant milestones we’ve deﬁned 
our ‘high tech high touch’ strategy for proﬁtable 
growth committing to be there for our customers 
wherever whenever and however they need us 
building a digital presence for the future 
we’re developing a new and differentiated product 
portfolio inspiring our customers’ personal journeys 
with the assurance of quality they have come to 
expect from the global pioneer in travel we’re living 
the values of the ‘sunny heart’ with trust innovation 
and personalisation at the heart of all we do 
with the thomas cook business system we now 
have the methodology to further professionalise 
our business
after the ﬁrst 365 days of our transformation we 
have a clear strategy for proﬁtable growth we have 
momentum and we’re delivering against our targets
and this is just the start
t ransformation 
inspiring personal journeys october 12 november 12 december 12 january 13 february 13 march 13
thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 2
transformation the ﬁrst 365 days
share price chart pence
overview our transformational milestones
the share price graph below shows some of our 
landmarks towards proﬁtable growth during the year 
landmarks towards 
proﬁtable growth
first thomas cook  
leadership council
code of conduct 
launched groupwide
launch of digital  
advisory board
peter fankhauser 
appointed as ceo uk 
and continental europe
capital markets day 
announcement of growth 
strategy and proﬁt 
improvement plans
04
sep
01
mar
13
mar
01
nov
feb
201 3 april 13 may 13 june 13 july 13 august 13 september 13
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
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first half underlying ebit 
on a likefor like basis 
improved by £587 million 
to £197 5 million
£58 7 m
“ d e s t ina t ion 
discovery” 
launched
launch of sunny 
heart brand
halfyear results  announcement 
of capital reﬁnancing plan
launch of the 
“every voice” employee 
engagement survey
03
sep
01
oct
16
may
may
201 3 thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 4
transformation the ﬁrst 365 days
building on our  
strengths
we have a strong ﬁnancial plan in place
we have developed a strong ﬁnancial plan for 
proﬁtable growth from a solid base underpinned by
1  an improved ﬁnancial position following  
the recent recapitalisation
2  detailed “bottom up” plans owned  
by each of our businesses
3  embedded targets and kpis aligned  
with our external commitments
  the group has a mediumterm 
planning horizon supported by 
detailed ﬁnancial projections 
prepared and owned by 
each business
 
 the plan for each business is 
rigorously reviewed by group and 
segment management through 
a series of meetings to produce 
a robust result
  the group ﬁnancial plan is reviewed 
and approved by the board on an 
annual basis and updated regularly 
to reﬂect changes to projections as 
they arise
 
 the approved plan is fully aligned 
with externally communicated 
targets and kpis and with 
management’s objectives and 
remuneration schemes
we have a robust investment case
we have a compelling databacked investment case  
the delivery of which is speciﬁc and measurable
it is based on three key drivers
 proﬁtable growth supported by new product
 digital growth supported by innovation
 cost out and proﬁt improvement 
it is measured through speciﬁc targets as follows
we are one of the world’s leading leisure travel companies with operations in 
1 7 source markets our core business model is that of a tour operator sourcing 
holiday components by creating them ourselves or procuring them from third 
parties and selling them to consumers via online and offline channels we enjoy 
number one or number two positions by revenue in each of our core markets
overview at a glance
business model explained
on page 17
full ﬁnancial statements
from page 90
1
2
3
our targets and key performance indicators kpis for our 
transformation and proﬁtable growth strategy
fy12 
actual
fy13 
actual
fy14 
target
fy15 
target
targets
new product revenue na £94m  £300m £700m
web penetration
1
34 36 40 50
cost outproﬁt improvement 
cumulative runrate £60m £194m £340m £440m
kpis
sales cagr
2
na na  25 35
underlying gross margin improvement
3
na 08  12  15
underlying uk ebit margin 0 1 22 35 5
cash conversion
4
11  48  5 5  70
notes
1  measured on a last 12 months departed basis
2  compound annual growth rate from fy13 to fy15 including new product revenue
3  underlying gross margins adjusted for disposals and shop closures on a likeforlike basis
4   cash conversion deﬁned as net cash from operating activities less interest paid as a percentage 
of underlying ebitda thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 5
directors’ report
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our brand approach and values
we delight customers with trusted personalised holiday experiences through high tech and high touch
brand approach brand values
we have a new diverse and experienced executive committee
on 7 november 201 3 we announced the completion of the executive committee which is another step 
on our journey to further professionalise the group break down regional silos and realign leadership 
responsibilities to accelerate the delivery of our strategy for sustainable proﬁtable growth
executive committee diversity indicator
our people
building an effective organisation is central to our transformation and 
over the last year we have established and continue to secure the 
foundations of a culture and structure that will be able to execute and 
deliver our transformation effectively during the year we have focused 
on ensuring that we have the right people in the right roles focused on the 
right priorities we have identiﬁed and communicated new values ways 
of working and introduced a code of conduct across the group
trusted
trust consistency and a strong 
brand are the most important 
drivers of customer choice
innovative
we continue to enrich our 
online offer with leading digital 
innovations to improve 
conversion rates
personal
50 of travellers feel overwhelmed 
by the amount of information 
and choice when booking 66 
of travellers want help in choosing 
the right product for them
high tech high touch
70 of travellers want a 
relationship with their holiday 
provider that goes beyond just 
booking and paying for a trip 93 
of travellers either search for 
content online or express a 
preference for booking online 
if possible
our people expanded
on page 25
related case study
on page 46
related case study
on page 29
related case study
on page 15
related case study
on page 40
group ceo
harriet green
chief 
technology 
officer
tomasz 
smaczny
chief 
financial 
officer
michael healy
general 
counsel and 
ma
craig stoehr
chief digital 
officer
interim 
ece head 
supported 
by james 
sandford
chief 
operating 
officer
peter 
fankhauser
chief people 
officer
sandra 
campopiano
group head 
of air travel
christopher 
debus
5 british 
1 us 
1 swiss
1 german 
1 polish
5
countries
groupwide gender diversity
1 female 17900
2 male 7800
1
2  
 
 
 
revenue by segment 

Summary:
 thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 10
transformation the ﬁrst 365 days
the ﬁrst 365 days 
of t ransformation
the momentum we have 
created in the ﬁrst 365 days 
will continue now into year 
two with even greater focus 
and commitment from the 
team at thomas cook
this is an exciting journey 
as we build for the future
the travel industry is changing at pace as consumers require greater 
ﬂexibility greater choice and products personalised to meet their needs 
technology offers so much opportunity for customers to connect in many 
different ways and the transformation of thomas cook will combine the 
“high tech” innovation that customers need with the “high touch” trusted 
personal service at the heart of the world’s oldest travel brand
the thomas cook group is on a transformation journey and here i answer 
some of the questions i have been asked about my reﬂections on the ﬁrst 
365 days of that transformation as we now look forward to year two of 
our journey 
group chief executive officer’s qa thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 11
directors’ report
2
financial statements
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strategic report
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q what have been your 
highlights of the past year 
a it’s been a year of signiﬁcant milestones 
for the group each one highly impactful 
and an important next step on the journey 
our immediate priorities were to stabilise the 
business and create a solid foundation from 
which we could begin to deliver our newly 
outlined strategy for proﬁtable growth
at the same time we had to reinstil a strong 
sense of belief both internally and externally 
with our key stakeholder groups that we are 
focused on the right activities to return this 
amazing brand to strength and we had to 
deliver against our commitments in the ﬁrst 
365 days of the transformation of thomas 
cook we have effected a rigorous and rapid 
turnaround of the business and set out a 
robust strategy of sustainable proﬁtable 
growth this pace will continue into the year 
ahead as we gain momentum developing a 
high performance culture and a methodology 
to further professionalise the organisation
we conducted one of the most farreaching 
surveys of the leisure travel market in our 
early work seeking the opinions of 18000 
consumers including both thomas cook 
customers and noncustomers across our 
key source markets of the uk germany and 
sweden the ﬁndings were invaluable as we 
began to develop our strategy for proﬁtable 
growth based on facts and data to ensure our 
new strategic focus would deliver products and 
services to meet the needs of today’s leisure 
traveller to inspire their personal journeys 
our strategy for proﬁtable growth gradually 
took shape and on 1 3 march we announced 
our plans to the capital markets on 27 june 
we successfully completed our £16 billion 
recapitalisation and on 1 october 201 3 
we announced our uniﬁed brand strategy 
our disposals programme continues to gain 
momentum in line with the targets we have 
set ourselves all of our strategic commitments 
are underpinned by a strict timeline for 
delivery with robust kpis and ﬁnancial targets 
delivering against our commitments is a vital 
part of the reenergising of thomas cook
we have already made strong progress against 
many of the metrics and where progress has 
been faster than expected notably in the 
areas of new product development our cost 
out and proﬁt improvement drive and also 
cash conversion the targets have now been 
increased as you will see on page 20
exceeding expectations and developing 
a methodology to further professionalise 
the business is vital if we are to restore 
shareholder conﬁdence and once again take a 
leadership role in shaping the future of travel
at the end of the ﬁrst 365 days underlying 
revenue had grown 13 despite capacity 
reductions costs are down 3 and 
underlying ebit is up 49 to £263 million 
free cash ﬂow an important driver in the 
continuing deleverage of the business is up 
£1 56 million net debt has almost halved 
and loan maturities have been extended 
in order to drive the change that the business 
required i needed to strengthen the leadership 
team and invest time and energy to ensure 
we have the right skills in place to lead the 
transformation we needed to change the 
culture – to put the needs of our customers 
and people back at the heart of the business 
we have made real progress already in our 
quest to build a culture of high performance 
and accountability stripping away layers 
of management between my executive 
team and the customer all consistent with 
our focus to take out cost and drive a leaner 
organisation as more and more customers 
use the web to research and purchase
one third of the senior leadership team are 
longstanding members of the thomas 
cook leadership team bringing relevant 
knowledge and perspective one third were 
promoted from within as strong talent and 
one third bought in from outside to bring 
specialist skills expertise and discipline to 
the organisation travel has historically been 
quite siloed and there is so much that can 
be learned from other industries providing 
opportunity for progress – creating a truly 
differentiated offering for customers and 
business partners alike internally we have 
a saying that we will be “lavish with our 
customers and lean with ourselves”
the strengthened leadership team have been 
critical to the success to date as we build an 
effective organisation we will continue to 
invest in their development whilst attracting 
new talent as required the formation of my 
new executive committee will ensure that 
we continue to drive our strategic progress 
with rigour breaking down silos and working 
across the group where appropriate whilst 
maintaining close local contact with our 
customers and their speciﬁc market needs 
we are driving a change of culture pace and 
professionalism with our code of conduct 
and values now embedded throughout 
the business helping to guide how we 
work the formation of my exco will help 
to streamline decision making and ensure 
we act as one group whilst aligning our 
leadership responsibilities even more robustly 
to the strategy to ensure that our next 365 
days of transformation deliver results in the 
same way as the ﬁrst
in a year of ﬁrsts we have also invested in 
our people as part of the cost out drive we 
had to take out a number of roles – always 
regrettable but also essential if we were 
to secure the business for the long term 
encouraging us to work smarter and reducing 
costly admin and unnecessary processes 
that did not beneﬁt our customers or 
shareholders those who left were treated 
with dignity and respect and given support 
to help them take the next steps in their 
career through the consultation process 
over 800 employees originally placed at risk 
were redeployed in new roles keeping their 
knowledge and skills in the business for the 
beneﬁt of customers and shareholders
successfully completed recapitalisation 
£1 6bn
revenue up by
13 
costs down by
3
free cash ﬂow up by
£1 5 6m thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 12
transformation the ﬁrst 365 days
q are you where you thought 
you would be at this stage
a although overall we are ahead of where 
we thought we would be at this stage 
the implementation of our strategy for 
sustainable proﬁtable growth has only just 
begun we have much still to do but i believe 
the infrastructure foundations and culture 
we are building now are preparing us well to 
deliver our ambitious plans
no one at thomas cook is complacent and 
whilst our ﬁrst 365 days have delivered strong 
results in many areas we are focused on 
continuous improvement and the longterm 
success of the group with the systemised 
approach to business products people and 
processes we are developing i know we can 
deliver signiﬁcantly more reﬂecting this we 
are increasing three of our key 201 5 targets 
new product revenue wave 1 cost out and 
proﬁt improvement and cash conversion 
in addition we have importantly announced 
our wave 2 cost out and proﬁt improvement 
programme which is targeted to deliver 
improvement of the same magnitude of 
wave 1 by 201 8 
listening to our customers and better 
understanding their needs is central as we 
continue to develop our products systems 
and services we are striving for differentiated 
products to give our customers the widest 
and most ﬂexible range of destinations best 
able to meet their needs – all underpinned 
by the thomas cook assurance of safety 
and quality to give peace of mind that our 
customers can trust our holiday experiences 
need to be as individual as the people who 
book them – we want to be there for our 
customers however whenever and wherever 
they need us our new sunconnect concept 
has been well received as just one example 
of new product that offers customers 
and particularly families a fully connected 
holiday experience
we have some exciting innovations in 
the pipeline to drive our online customer 
experience – through enhanced web 
improved search functionality and leading 
edge apps we have committed 50 of 
our groupwide sales will be transacted via 
the web by 201 5 although in some parts of 
the business we have already exceeded this 
target we have much to deliver in this area 
which continues to be an area of strategic 
investment as we bring in digital talent to 
support our progress our digital advisory 
board comprising external experts in their 
ﬁeld helps to ensure we keep abreast of the 
latest developments in all sectors continue 
to help drive the pace of change in this area
the ﬁrst 365 days of our journey are behind 
us and we are focused on new deliverables 
exacting targets and operationalising the 
thomas cook business system to deliver even 
greater beneﬁts to our business the industry 
and all of our stakeholders every person 
in the business has clear objectives and 
performance measures as we each take our 
part in driving the transformation of thomas 
cook and delivering on our commitments 
i think my current frame of mind can best 
be described as positively dissatisﬁed and 
looking forward to the next 365 days
q what is the signiﬁcance 
of sunny heart
a a huge part of our journey is centred 
around our employees and using their passion 
for our customers to make a difference to 
each and every personal journey
ours is the oldest and arguably the best 
loved name in leisure travel with 1 72 years 
of proud tradition behind us we are a brand 
that customers trust we must be worthy 
and deserving of that trust
when i arrived the group was quite siloed in 
its thinking and approach customers were 
confused and not always clear which parts 
of their journey were being delivered by 
thomas cook best practice wasn’t being 
shared widely and there was duplicated 
activity and cost customers were missing 
out radically reducing our 85 brand labels 
was a clear priority – eliminating cost and 
confusion we have now simpliﬁed these 
85 labels to just 30 unifying our brands 
under one common symbol – our new 
sunny heart simplifying the customer 
experience the sunny heart highlights the 
combined strengths of the group in the 
minds of our customers and will become 
synonymous with personalised and trusted 
holiday experiences and our high tech high 
touch delivery our brand is underpinned 
by the thomas cook quality assurance 
our international scale and market leading 
purchasing power – all vital if we are to deliver 
for our customers again and again 
when i started at thomas cook i asked 
our teams globally to share with me their 
thoughts 8000 of them did – candid 
actionable feedback from the frontline 
in september 201 3 we conducted our 
ﬁrst all employee engagement survey 
to sense check our progress with all of 
our employees in a service business like 
thomas cook where customers trust us to 
inspire and deliver their personal journeys 
engaged employees who believe in our end 
goal are vital to customer satisfaction and 
loyalty – and ultimately our ability to deliver 
proﬁtable growth  engaging our employees 
in the transformation has been vital and 
we have worked hard to communicate with 
them at every stage – honestly sharing our 
position to help them understand the tough 
decisions we were making they have been 
fantastic – united as one team to deliver 
for our customers
our own teams helped develop our new 
values and ways of working with integrity 
at our core we also have a code of conduct 
which allows us to deliver the values of our 
new unifying brand – the sunny heart which 
our employees have embraced so positively 
as a real symbol that thomas cook is 
changing and is different
we are actively recognising and celebrating 
individual contributions and through 
our transformer programme involving 
some of our many talented individuals in 
spreading the messages of transformation 
communication is vital to a successful 
transformation and we work hard to convey 
the messages of our progress across the 
organisation through many different 
mediums including our intranet which 
will enable real social collaboration and 
the sharing of best practice groupwide
in summary  so many highlights but still 
much more to do
group chief executive officer’s qa continued thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 13
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financial statements
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strategic report
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as already shared during the development 
of our strategy for proﬁtable growth we 
undertook one of the largest traveller surveys 
of recent years we have learned through the 
survey the importance of customer attitude 
in determining holiday preferences and our 
tailoring our product portfolio to ensure 
that we meet individual customer needs 
speciﬁcally we have segmented our product 
portfolio into four areas concept hotels 
partnership hotels hotels from our brochures 
and ﬂexible hotels available online including 
hotels4ucom that has recently broadened its 
offer to appeal not just to business but also to 
retail customers developing these plans for 
the future are high on our list of ‘what’s next’ 
– with opportunity to increase the number 
of visitors to all product categories 
in fy1 3 over 500000 customers enjoyed 
our 93 exclusive concept hotels which are 
operated under our own brands sentido 
sunwing sunprime and smartline 
these hotels provide our customers with a 
consistent experience based on a deﬁned 
list of features that meet their needs 
wherever they go on holiday these are 
further categorised according to whether 
their customer focus is adult couple or 
family orientated
our other exclusive hotels are partnership 
hotels in fy1 3 over 800000 customers 
enjoyed these hotels which are owned 
by world leading hoteliers with whom we 
have close relationships and who have 
strong reputations for providing consistently 
high quality service in keeping with our 
commitment to assurance 
our third segment consists of hotels from 
our brochures providing customers with 
a quality range of accommodation and 
style as well as more choice across a wide 
range of destinations in fy1 3 88 million 
customers enjoyed staying at these hotels
finally we also offer a signiﬁcant range 
of ﬂexible hotels that are available 
online on a realtime basis via the web 
to allow the greatest level of ﬂexibility 
supported by encouraging trials we see 
potential to attract new customers who 
like to book online and typically later than 
many others 
an expensive brand rollout would have 
been inappropriate for where we are on 
our transformation journey instead we will 
rebrand as we replace our employees are 
fully engaged in the change and we wanted 
them to embrace the heart and start to 
live the difference internally ﬁrst with our 
employees engaged we believe that all those 
who come into contact with us will sense the 
difference and know that they are dealing 
with a new reenergised thomas cook
our new brand continues to engage and 
inspire our teams and almost daily i am sent 
photographs like these of people right across 
the group embracing the heart for many 
this has been the most visible sign of our 
transformation and they’re embracing 
the change with renewed commitment 
and vigour
q what’s next for thomas cook
a our journey to build longterm sustainable 
value at thomas cook continues with 
proﬁtable growth at the heart of all we do 
sustaining our transformation and delivering 
for our customers and shareholders again 
and again will only be achieved if we have 
the best people best products best systems 
and best processes all underpinned by the 
very best practices from all industries not just 
our own we are focused on overdelivering 
and we’ve increased three of our fy1 5 key 
performance targets already reﬂecting better 
progress than originally anticipated in the 
areas of new product revenue wave 1 cost 
out and our cash conversion 
with customer need ﬁrmly back at the heart 
of everything we do we will be aiming to 
further professionalise the “high tech high 
touch” delivery of our trusted personalised 
products  supported by a lean and innovative 
operating system speciﬁcally designed for 
our needs
to support this we have created a disciplined 
operating model called “the thomas cook 
business system” 
the process of embedding this methodology 
into the organisation has begun and 
is already helping to drive a culture of 
continuous improvement across the group 
this approach will be key as we shape the 
future of the group and drive the second year 
of our transformation 
we will continue to strengthen the leadership 
team with global executives who have a track 
record for delivering results and under my 
leadership the newly formed exco will be 
driving greater alignment in all parts of the 
strategy creating real opportunity to reduce 
cost and duplication and deliver greater 
synergy as we strive to work more effectively
proﬁtable growth 
through trusted 
personalised 
products
thomas cook business system
customers  
at the heart
high tech 
high touch  
a digital business
toptobottom 
leadership 
and relentless 
performance 
management
efficient structures 
systems and 
processes through 
lean  innovation thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 14
transformation the ﬁrst 365 days
our strategy is focused on continuing to 
shift more of the total investment spend 
into those hotels where we have the highest 
returns these are areas of strong strategic 
investment for the future and we expect to 
increase our offering of exclusive partnership 
and concept hotels to 800 by fy1 7  with over 
35 million guests
our product growth ambitions also include a 
relentless pursuit to innovate more products 
such as our new “sunconnect” concept 
developed as a direct response to customer 
feedback through our extensive traveller 
survey initial response has been good
we are continuing to diversify beyond 
our traditional sun and beach products 
developing our portfolio of city hotels across 
our group we have already doubled our 
inventory in central europe and plan to more 
than double the number of city hotels we 
offer by fy1 5 
we are also signiﬁcantly expanding our 
winter sun offering with 25 of our planned 
growth coming from the addition of new 
destinations and the expansion of existing 
destinations we have recently added seven 
new destinations to our offer including 
st lucia barbados and antigua and plan 
further additions in time for next winter
we have increased our target for new product 
revenues following a good performance in 
the year our target now is to achieve new 
product revenue of £700 million by fy1 5 
and by fy1 7  we expected to have increased 
incremental product revenue growth 
further to more than £12 billion
to underpin all our products right across 
the group and continue to deliver on the 
trust that our customers place with us 
when they book a holiday we are rolling 
out an extensive and thorough assurance 
programme this involves a continuous audit 
of key quality measures including health and 
safety customer service and overall quality 
excellence this work includes extensive 
customer surveys that will allow us to 
determine what really matters to customers 
which we can then reinvest into our ongoing 
product development our survey told us this 
matters to consumers 
as we build an omnichannel approach 
that ensures customers can interact with 
us however they want we will continue 
to develop our digital footprint we have 
invested signiﬁcant resource and time in 
improving our web presence and this will 
continue as we move all markets away from 
the multiple platforms of the past onto 
one web platform this will improve search 
capability and consistency allowing us to 
better sort and organise our products to 
better meet customer requirements as we 
maximise the product range we can offer to 
every customer in every market we expect 
that web penetration will accelerate once all 
our businesses are on one platform reaching 
over 50 by 201 5 we’re driving innovation 
and have many exciting new information 
and products in development to answer 
customer questions quickly and effectively 
through our new “destination discovery” 
system in partnership with triporati we can 
help customers narrow the range of choices 
and then to transfer their own shortlist of 
selections to their personal devices through 
our new “dream capture” to allow them to 
peruse and make their ﬁnal selection in their 
own homes with their travelling companions 
we are looking to add digital value to every 
part of the customer journey and many 
more innovations will follow as we look to a 
digital future where every leader in our senior 
team has web targets embedded in their 
performance criteria
in line with our new operating methodology 
“the thomas cook business system” we plan 
to deliver further beneﬁts from enhanced 
margin management more efficient use of 
shared services and a leaner organisational 
design these will be delivered under a 
wave 2 cost out and proﬁt improvement 
programme which will be in addition to the 
wave 1 work already underway to deliver 
£440 million of cost out by fy1 5
our new wave 2 cost out and proﬁt 
improvement initiatives will drive beneﬁts 
in gross margin as well as reduce costs 
through lower overheads gross margin 
beneﬁts are expected to arise from further 
yield management and working more 
closely together as a group – whether 
by adopting one system one inventory 
and one web across our markets and the 
scale beneﬁts that come from using our 
combined purchasing power to procure 
accommodation on a centralised basis 
reducing expense further by growing online 
sales of our own branded products
as customers increasingly purchase through 
our online channels we will have the chance 
to further centralise activity reducing cost 
improving service and consistency through 
more lean organisational structures and 
reduced “backroom” expenses
we believe the total wave 2 beneﬁts will be 
of a similar magnitude to those identiﬁed 
through wave 1 and will be achieved by fy18 
over the next six months we will continue to 
develop the plan as we reﬁne and develop 
our plans
all of these plans will only be possible by 
employing the right people and so we will 
continue to focus on attracting developing 
and retaining the very best people – people 
who are as excited as we are by the thomas 
cook transformation journey as we continue 
to professionalise our business and proﬁtably 
grow for the beneﬁt of all of our stakeholders
the momentum we have created in the ﬁrst 
365 days will continue now into year two with 
even greater focus and commitment from 
the team at thomas cook
this is an exciting journey as we build 
for the future
harriet green
group chief executive officer
27 november 201 3
group chief executive officer’s qa continued thomas cook group plc  annual report  accounts 2013 15
directors’ report
2
financial statements
3
strategic report
1
trusted
brand uniﬁcation
on 1 october 201 3 the company announced the 
uniﬁcation of its brands and market activity under 
one common symbol the sunny heart 
simplifying the brand proposition is a key element in the group’s proﬁtable growth strategy building on the 
group’s already strong and trusted brand heritage and projecting its transformation into a single business 
the group’s many leading brands such as neckermann in europe ving in sweden and condor in germany 
will all connect with the sunny heart in different ways this is a major milestone in the transformation of 
the group as it continues to develop its product offering and focus on an omnichannel approach
brand architecture
corporate brand
master brand
aligned brands
endorsed brands
standalone brands