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Management Giants
Thomas Cook
In 1841, a temperance meeting was held in Loughborough and Cook arranged for the Midland Railway to run an excursion train from Leicester and back, charging passengers a shilling for the return journey.
This was the first ever-public excursion train journey in England. From this, he began to arrange excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. In 1844, the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. He was working from London by this time.
In 1856, he introduced a railway tour of Europe and in the early 1860’s he began the travel firm of Thomas Cook and son, which now included tours of the USA.
Today, Thomas Cook Group is one of the largest retail travel network in the world.
Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9, Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire. The couple’s first child, he was named after Elizabeth’s father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried the same year later.
At the age of 10, Thomas Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker.
Thomas Cook was brought up as a strict Baptist and he joined his local Temperance Society. In February 1826, he became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet-maker to earn money. After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828.
In 1832, Thomas Cook moved to the Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough. Influenced by the local Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on the New Year’s Day in 1833. As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions.
On 3rd of March 1833, Thomas Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born on 13th of January 1834 .
The first-ever excursions
Cook’s idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth. With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away.
On July 5, 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey.
Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price.
This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the public;
During the following three summers, he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844, the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets.
On 4 August 1845, he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool. In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland, however his lack of commercial ability led him to bankruptcy. He persisted and had success when he claimed that he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London.
Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition.
The following year he started his “grand circular tours” of Europe. During the 1860’s, he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook established “inclusive independent travel”, whereby the travelers went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route.
Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business by themselves.
With John A. Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son.
They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel.
The office also contained a shop, which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear.
Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office.
Their business model was refined by the introduction of the “hotel coupon” in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the travelers. Either they were valid for a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook’s list.
In 1865, the agency organized tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook led the excursions that included tours of several Civil War battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however, after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name.
Round the world tour started in 1872, for 200 guineas, included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan, and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days.
In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced “circular notes”, a product that later became better known by American Express’s brand, “traveler’s checks”.
Conflicts of interest between father and son resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death.
The firm’s growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880’s, when Cook began organizing tours to the Middle East.
By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets.
John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as “the second-greatest man in Egypt”.
However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year.
His sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were not nearly as successful in running the business.
Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square, London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
During the 1930’s, the travel agency consolidated especially from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and in turn the British assets were requisitioned by the Government.
In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it further.
Company ownership
The company was nationalized in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission. In the early 1950’s, the company began promoting “foreign holidays” (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain. However, they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single “package”.
After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveler’s checks, the company prospered again.
Thomas Cook made a controversial business move in 2008, buying out Canadian travel wholesaler IFS Voyages (including Fun Sun Vacations, Intair, Exotik Tours, Boomerang Tours, etc.).
In March 2010, Thomas Cook acquired the UK travel insurance and airport parking provider Essential Travel and launched Thomas Cook Essentials.
This was followed by a merger with The Co-operative Travel group on 8th of October 2010 to create the UK’s largest retail travel network.
In the 2011, AGM Thomas Cook shareholders mounted a “revolt” over executive bonuses with only 53.2 percent voting in favor of the remuneration report.
This was the first ever-public excursion train journey in England. From this, he began to arrange excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. In 1844, the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. He was working from London by this time.
In 1856, he introduced a railway tour of Europe and in the early 1860’s he began the travel firm of Thomas Cook and son, which now included tours of the USA.
Today, Thomas Cook Group is one of the largest retail travel network in the world.
Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9, Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire. The couple’s first child, he was named after Elizabeth’s father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried the same year later.
At the age of 10, Thomas Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker.
Thomas Cook was brought up as a strict Baptist and he joined his local Temperance Society. In February 1826, he became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet-maker to earn money. After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828.
In 1832, Thomas Cook moved to the Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough. Influenced by the local Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on the New Year’s Day in 1833. As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions.
On 3rd of March 1833, Thomas Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born on 13th of January 1834 .
The first-ever excursions
Cook’s idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth. With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away.
On July 5, 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey.
Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price.
This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the public;
During the following three summers, he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844, the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets.
On 4 August 1845, he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool. In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland, however his lack of commercial ability led him to bankruptcy. He persisted and had success when he claimed that he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London.
Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition.
The following year he started his “grand circular tours” of Europe. During the 1860’s, he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook established “inclusive independent travel”, whereby the travelers went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route.
Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business by themselves.
With John A. Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son.
They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel.
The office also contained a shop, which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear.
Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office.
Their business model was refined by the introduction of the “hotel coupon” in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the travelers. Either they were valid for a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook’s list.
In 1865, the agency organized tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook led the excursions that included tours of several Civil War battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however, after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name.
Round the world tour started in 1872, for 200 guineas, included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan, and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days.
In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced “circular notes”, a product that later became better known by American Express’s brand, “traveler’s checks”.
Conflicts of interest between father and son resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death.
The firm’s growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880’s, when Cook began organizing tours to the Middle East.
By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets.
John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as “the second-greatest man in Egypt”.
However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year.
His sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were not nearly as successful in running the business.
Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square, London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
During the 1930’s, the travel agency consolidated especially from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and in turn the British assets were requisitioned by the Government.
In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it further.
Company ownership
The company was nationalized in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission. In the early 1950’s, the company began promoting “foreign holidays” (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain. However, they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single “package”.
After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveler’s checks, the company prospered again.
Thomas Cook made a controversial business move in 2008, buying out Canadian travel wholesaler IFS Voyages (including Fun Sun Vacations, Intair, Exotik Tours, Boomerang Tours, etc.).
In March 2010, Thomas Cook acquired the UK travel insurance and airport parking provider Essential Travel and launched Thomas Cook Essentials.
This was followed by a merger with The Co-operative Travel group on 8th of October 2010 to create the UK’s largest retail travel network.
In the 2011, AGM Thomas Cook shareholders mounted a “revolt” over executive bonuses with only 53.2 percent voting in favor of the remuneration report.
