I. Was. Another protest took place at the Tory party conference in Manchester cabin manage a Stephen Kearney would normally have been paid that day the money never arrived instead he joined the demonstration I walked in this morning from my house to here as a warped I got that more angry. The shock of all that it just disabled you from doing anything it's like a it's like a gust bottle it just shot isn't a 1000000 pieces and you're trying to bring all the pieces together so that you can figure out what he's going to do instead of the shots of pieces just laying where they are after 20 years spent working for Thomas Cook Stephen fears he may not find another employer in my head I always think I'm 35 the best recess and 57 and I still have the enthusiasm of a says hero to do everything. Whether that is reflected in when I go for interviews they can see that I'm not just a 57 year old man remains to be seen so how did this 178 year old company go from buying brand new uniforms one week to collapsing 2 weeks later over the past month lots of people have been trying to get and says. This is a statement high hopes they will live a half the way the industry was changing around Thomas Cook faster than they could keep up there's clearly issues here about management failure like I was I might be captain of the ship when I went down to look a how much they were borrowing I think they need to really examine their own conscience only Sally a nice story for this to find myself because if you. For the past 4 weeks filing for has been speaking to the company's former employees and senior executives they describe a complete consumed by a crisis of its own making. This company was a 1000000000 in debt to me it was almost like game over are we ever going to be able to do enough to survive. There were too many levels of leadership empires built to the detriment of what we should have been doing I genuinely think people did not realize how bad this it got by the end tonight we can tell you the real story of what happened. It starts in the front room of a terrorist house in the West Midlands during the small hours of Monday September 23rd but just on the safe with the news on am just sat there kind of waiting really waiting for it to hit 2 o'clock to see what see what happened attempts to rescue Thomas Cook have failed the tunnel for example morning the Civil Aviation Authority said the tour operator had ceased trading with immediate effect I just could not say a computer like Thomas Cook how it could disappear overnight with the amount of people that were going to be affected by it my initial reaction was just straight away and this horrible. You know the same feeling as being told that you've lost somebody very close to you Kimberly Jeffrey spent 15 years working for Thomas Cook most recently in a dream job managing the company's travel agent Intel for time Center the 1st person I picked up the phone and called was my mom. What did she say she didn't know what was wrong so she was like you know what's the matter tell me what's the matter what's happened and I couldn't even get my words out to where so I said you know it's gone Thomas Cook What was it about Thomas Cook that was special it's got to be the heritage that it had 178 years know what the travel company has got that there's just so much history there wasn't just a holiday comply Kimberly's right it wasn't just a holiday. I'm pretty I come to Cambridge to meet Dr Pierce Brendan who literally wrote the book on Thomas Cook behind these heavy steel doors of the seemingly endless shelves of one of the city's archives well telescope's history is involved in an enormous amount of archival shelves boxes. Papers and everything it's a kind of treasury of travel to really understand the company Dr Brendan sais you need to understand its founder Thomas Cook was a teetotal Baptist born during the Industrial Revolution in 1041 he led the very 1st Thomas Cook excursion a train journey from Leicester to last breath to attend a temperance rally Thomas Cook developed the concept of the package holiday particularly after the 2nd World War because the 2nd revolution occurred in travel during the 1950 s. And 1960 s. Here for the 1st time a new class of people could go abroad cheaply and efficiently in this river Lucian re new form of travel namely the airplane only by now it's found his legacy it started to fade and the price of this is that this man Thomas Cook who had been a teetotaller and temperance fanatic the company eventually became the owner of the $18.00 to $30.00 Club which more or less advertised 6 son and. Remember this was club 18 to 30 the company that once attractive hundreds of complaints after using the advertising slogan Espana I think the 1st Thomas Cook would have been appalled by the development of the company because he didn't. Ever consider profit as his prime motive he considered that what he was engaged in was a mission to the masses you probably go. One of the longest understandings of this company from its formation to now and now you've watched it go bust and none of it could be saved what do you think about that I think it's a complete tragedy Don't forget I mean Thomas Cook had to go through 2 world wars it had to go through the Depression and it survived all those experiences what it did not survive was the greed of management. And there was good money to be made in people's holidays. We're going to make sure you go to Thomas Cook. Because we drink the middleman 980 s. British people took just over 20000000 holidays abroad so by 2004 that figure was over 40000000 almost half of them package deal. Just give you Thomas good. People wanted sunshine I mean you know going on holiday in the u.k. I don't want to run them down but the optically exciting damaged last ones a former managing director Thomas Cook's rival to u.k. And suddenly you could go to the carries you could go to the ballet Erica Hill and you could go to China Zia you know guaranteed sunshine and actually fantastic hotel swimming pools and great beaches and warm seized this woman at a price you could afford and of course the big panic all travel agents in those days which is running out of brochures and I mean there were queues. Travel agents because people were just desperate to get their hands on the latest one is just astonishing. So thinking about Thomas Cook How was that feud within the industry well great name high recognition respect and a good reputation with customers but I think at the end of the day they probably were never became a great holiday company in the sense of financially running it brilliantly I think they cared about the customer and one of them to have a great holiday we've spoken to Thomas Cook staff who were there for the boom years and they say that's right they really did want people to have a great holiday for them working wasn't just a job it was a passion Dave Crighton was one of Thomas Cooks pilots we used to live under the flight path and you castle so I just always want to play until it's just all I want to do after 6 at a cutout like you and I always remember seeing the plane I think it was 2 or 3 years old and thinking wow to the size of things but everything is big when your child then you go all the planes to get small little big things when we met him near his home in Cheshire he pulled out his phone to show us his favorite landing over the desert into the bright lights of Las Vegas museum on you it's a mansion. So although when you look at the video you think your figure not up very quickly but it happens very quickly and see you you're about 10 miles out at an 8 degree angle of the room with me and all of sudden you probably do the the toughest one of the toughest approaches in the world to do for a good dinner for 2. Or 3 down was up to no room for ever but eyes still what everybody flies for because you can have the ability to do that. Part fly in a 60000000 pound airplane you know. You can't buy that a lot why we love it and the planes day flew for Thomas Cook were full of paying passengers all told Thomas Cook's customers spent billions on the holidays which made Dave question how the company managed to run out of money I guess I'm about the situation just because I think it was. Resolvable. The problems last stomach the been there for for the last 12 years really is when the real problem started it was bad decisions and it was a real acushla to calmly wish to spend on businesses that came with debt and eventually that these businesses didn't then produce the profits that it was supposed to bushel of that. Let's stop and look at that when did things start to go wrong for Thomas Cook every farmer executive we've spoken to points to the same year 2007 that was the year Thomas Cook was flying highest worth almost $3000000000.00 pounds its chief executive at the time was a flamboyant 53 year old spanning it man well 10 Lenovo are known as Manny It started out in the company's printing department 3 decades earlier this is him interviewed by Evan Davis on Radio 4 s bottom line holidays are so important this country of people was for the service of perhaps the trigger slightly different approach to too difficult times when you could have been the thing for the consumer close on spend. Money wanted to expand in 2007 Thomas Cook's executives told us they were expecting him to merge the company with one of its rivals 1st choice but just before the deal went through they got a couple money was going to merge with another rival Instead my travel the deal transformed Thomas Cook from a small package holiday company to a travel group with its own tour operator and an airline all listed on the stock exchange but it meant getting into debt really into debt my travel was already 619000000 pounds in the red when they merged with it Dermot blast one from 2 couldn't believe what Thomas Cook was doing what assets were they getting from my travel. Uk like don't get it you know it was poorly run that had huge bonds because they went through their own financial crisis a few years earlier it's a bearing on my mind what was the view of the rest of the industry after us current management us suppose in a nutshell I don't think that their costs were as low as they could have been so they are a higher cost base than the competitors I think their management information wasn't good I think their revenue management systems weren't a match either I don't didn't overanalyze long as we follow actually beat them every year that was falling despite these problems Thomas Cook's buses were well rewarded the year after the my travel deal money from telling of took home over 7000000 pounds in pay and bonuses company documents reveal 5000000 if that was just one Burress specifically awarded for merging companies and cutting costs 5000000 pounds almost 8 times his annual salary and around 330 times what Stephen Kenny was paid for working cabin crew this is my uniform it's a 3 piece suit waistcoats obviously transfer the jacket Stephen was one of those who join Thomas Cook from my travel in the merger as uniform I have a look like a Portland's red coat it was a blue coat but it looked like a red coat for an account of over the years it's evolved into something a bit more tasteful shall we say at his home a few miles from where he worked at Manchester Airport Steven remembered his pride in being part of the new company when he walking through the terminal people look at you and they envy is not the right word but they look at you and they go great job there is a. Respect for doing your job because they know where push comes to shove in the majors see you're the only person they can turn to. Later driving through the city Stephen told me what he learned from working in the travel business fail to pay prepared to fail and I religiously live by that every single day as you have no one else to blame if something goes wrong even up and it's down to Stevens buses could have listened to his advice by now Thomas Cook's debt a grown from around $900000000.00 in 2007 to 1100000000 in 2010 just paying off the interest cost a fortune competitor and again you don't come to a co-op deal. Which in my own view but I mean I wasn't alone I mean it was jaw dropping we just couldn't believe it but it's actually even worse than that this was 2011 money from 11 of our was still running Thomas Cook in a move which we've been told stunned even his own executives he decided to merge the company's high street travel agents with those of their rival co-op travel Mr Funtown one of our declined an interview but we've been told the deal meant Thomas Cook ended up with less rather the more control over what the stores were doing so I was then talking to the person in charge of it and I said well why don't you just cut the commission that you're paying them and for if they can't do that I said what you've lost control of your own shops Yes So all these Thomas Cook shops you don't now control no it's all part the joint venture in the thinking This is madness you've lost you've lost control of your retail trying company inside is also question the deals logic the Internet was biting chunks out of the travel agent business so why acquire more travel agents the co-op also received a guarantee payment of 40000000 pounds over 4 years and Thomas Cook had to make sure they got it in August 20 Levon after issuing 3 profit warnings money from $101.00 of our left in total Thomas Cook paid him over $50000000.00 pounds pay benefits and bonuses at Manchester pilot Dave Crighton says that by now it was increasingly clear which parts of the business were making money and which weren't the long haul Pa The business was the jewel in the crown and having worked in the long haul flight every week they're always full as when I say full training 25 people it was 10 empties I'd be surprised we got a royal mail contracts 521-0000 cargo it is the numbers rim Isn't it was incredible cash cow for the calling it end. Shop so then Costas book if you want a really good website and everything or lie in it will not be of the shop and that's probably the biggest problem with hard for the use of just not being a tool efficient enough money from 11 of our successes was a Thomas Cook outsider Harriet Green recorded his speaking at a conference worked for an electrical distribution company surround yourself with people better than you with different skills whether it's in late 20 Levon she emailed Thomas Cook's chairman with the message this is why you need me it worked she got the job and she did stop turning the company around its share price went up but we've spoken to pharma colleagues who also point to the 10s of thousands a year in hotel bills Ms Green ran up all the millions spent on private consultants all the almost $5000000.00 she took her home in pay and bonuses we asked Ms Green for an interview she didn't respond after 2 years she left by then 2014 the company's debts were up to $1300000000.00 pounds and they were paying over $100000000.00 pounds a year in interest that year a new chief executive Peter Fenn closer and to the ring to wrestle with the monster on his balance sheet. Here we are in the city of London London's financial district you can tell because the soup's a bit sharper the buildings were big Tala people walk as a bit of a fast pace and we had to speak to the man who predicted turbulence ahead. Stuart Gardens an analyst with Paralympic bank it was his job bluntly to recommend if you should buy or sell shares in Thomas Cook stared at Mr s. May idea. But when he looked at the Company's a camp's alarm bells. For me this started ringing in 2016 it was about then I realized that the debt levels at Thomas crew were actually not coming in the way that the management had expected nor the way that I had expected and I was increasingly concerned that if the consumer for any reason not going on holiday or perhaps changing our holiday plans to sue a tighter budget you would have a company that fish real trouble not that raising the alarm warning many friends and I was fairly unpopular and I think I was pretty unpopular with the management and I think actually I may have been the only cell from the city at the time the only person to tell investors you should sell his company exactly it put simply Stewart says Thomas Cook spent so much money paying back its debts it had too little left to rely on when something went wrong like a heat wave that many people chose to holiday at home or a volcano grabbing European flights or brags that the way to optimistic of you have host stronger financial position would be operationally I don't think they were full so they just didn't mend their finances as quickly as they should have done and I think they should've done this well in advance of where it became too late surely all the blame for that must be on them they can't be anybody else. The cam in the video. Yet it wasn't always easy to see what was going on at Thomas Cook from looking at his accounts they used what some of called aggressive accounting including exceptional items supposedly one off events that had the effect of disguising the company's losses but year after year there was another different exceptional item. Finally for a spoken to senior company insiders you say even they didn't realize the extent of Thomas Cook's problems they've asked us to protect their identities for fear of speaking out their careers so we've used actors to speak their words we were told we're carrying this debt from a deal that was done many years ago and now we've got this baggage around our necks what that means is we have to sell about 2000 holidays to even pay a very small piece of that debt back what we're doing is essentially working to pay back the interest or did you feel about that. There was anger around surely at the very very top whoever is accountable whether that's accountants coming in an audit in the business or whether the senior management whoever was responsible for that to me it was almost like game over and we have are going to be able to do enough to survive Thomas Cook's debt kept on climbing all the way up to 1400000000 pounds through 201-520-1620 extension 1728 team during this time its chief executive Peter Frank I was a took over 8000000 pounds there we did go 2 years without getting a bonus I think Peter was a very focused individual and what he wanted and what he was determined to achieve this insider regularly with Thomas Cook's bosses in the run up to its collapse she says that despite his dead the company kept on spending money there were a lot of projects start in the company the ended up being failed projects and maybe the company didn't listen when people said that won't work or do it a different way so there was a lot of wasted money over the past 12 months our insiders say she feared the company did not have a coherent plan there were too many levels of leadership empires built to the detriment of what we should have been doing maybe people believed Thomas Cook was too big to fail not in an arrogant sense but we being close to the edge before I genuinely think people did not realize how bad this had got by the end. Of File on 4 has learned the civil aviation authority of financial advisers monitoring Thomas Cook since spring of this year that's months before the company went into liquidation to most people however the 1st public sign of a crisis came a few months later in May Thomas Cook reported a 1500000000 pound loss most of it due yes you guessed it to my travel the company Thomas Cook mode. In 2007. At the company's London offices Peter found work desperately to save it and at last it looked as if the Chinese photos and tourism company might bail them out in return for control of Thomas Cook. For weeks inside just told us their bosses promised it would be alright this deal will work but the amount of money needed to save Thomas Cook kep