Thomas Cook gets to the heart of the matter

The move will see all its brands – such as Neckermann in Europe, Ving in Sweden, Condor in Germany and Elegant Resorts in the UK – unified under the same symbol for the first time in the group’s 172-year history. The heart will replace the familiar globe on its websites, with a new ‘Let’s Go’ slogan replacing ‘Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it’.

Two UK travel shops have already been rebranded with the sunny heart logo in Peterborough and Wimbledon, with aims to overhaul 330 store fascias by December 12.

Its new concept stores in Leeds, Edinburgh, Teesside, Bristol and Lakeside are opening with the new fascias by the end of the month. Thomas Cook said it will revamp planes as they are due for routine maintenance.

It marks the latest step under a new strategy being led by group chief executive Harriet Green, who also announced plans in March to slash the number of UK brands from 30 to less than 10.

She said: “This major milestone in the transformation of our company, as we continue to develop our product offering and focus on our omni-channel approach, is much more than the rollout of a new logo.

“It symbolises how we are leveraging the combined power of the group to maximise our presence in the mind of customers, whilst helping to reduce cost.”

Michael Healy, group chief financial officer, said: “Having already piloted this approach in our North European businesses since November 2012, we have proven that it has heightened brand awareness, driven more website traffic, increased early and repeat bookings and improved conversion rates.

“This unification has been developed internally and we are rolling it out appropriately for this stage in our transformation journey.”

Thomas Cook group has sales of £9.5bn and had 23 million customers in the year ending September 30, 2012.