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Originally Posted by denphone
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But how much of that debt originated from decisions taken more than 10
years ago?
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Its history left it with expensive overheads - hundreds of shops and thousands of staff.
Acquisitions left it with high debt levels, and little ability to respond to the headwinds of the travel market. Hurricanes, heatwaves and currency fluctuations have hit the company hard over the last few years.
"I think the reasons are very complex," says Amie Keeley, the head of news at Travel Weekly.
She cites some "questionable decisions" years ago, when the company was under a different management and decided to expand its shop network at a time when more people were going online.
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A large chunk of the debt is related to MyTravel, bought in 2007.
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Its next owner in 2001 was another German company, C&N Touristic AG, which quickly rebranded the whole business as Thomas Cook. And in 2007 the company merged with MyTravel - owner of the Airtours and Going Places brands - and became known as the Thomas Cook Group.
More acquisitions of shops and travel businesses, including websites, continued across the world.
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In May, the group reported a £1.5bn loss, with more than £1bn written off from the 2007 merger with MyTravel – better known for its brands Airtours and Going Places.
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