Thomas Cook Retail Limited – in Liquidation

Joint Special Managers - Jim Tucker and David Pike.

Former Joint Special Manager - Blair Nimmo

On 23 September 2019 the High Court appointed the Official Receiver as Liquidator of Thomas Cook Group Plc and certain of its subsidiaries.
Simultaneously, the Court has also appointed Special Managers to support the Official Receiver in carrying out its duties as Liquidator:

Appointment overview

- Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and David Pike of Interpath Advisory have been appointed Special Managers of TCCT Retail Limited, Thomas Cook Retail Limited, Travel & Financial Services Limited and Retail Travel Limited.
Blair Nimmo ceased to be a Special Manager by order of the High Court with effect from 19 September 2024. Jim Tucker and David Pike remain in office as Special Managers of TCCT Retail Limited, Thomas Cook Retail Limited, Travel & Financial Services Limited and Retail Travel Limited.

- Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and Mike Pink of Interpath Advisory have been appointed as Special Managers of The Freedom Travel Group Limited and Future Travel Limited.
Blair Nimmo ceased to be a Special Manager by order of the High Court with effect from 19 September 2024. Jim Tucker and Mike Pink remain in office as Special Managers of The Freedom Travel Group Limited and Future Travel Limited.

- David Pike, Mike Pink and Ben Leith of Interpath Advisory were appointed as Special Managers of Thomas Cook Aircraft Engineering Limited.
Following his resignation from KPMG, Ben Leith has ceased to be a Special Manager of Thomas Cook Aircraft Engineering Limited with effect from 29 May 2020. Dave Pike and Mike Pink remain in office as Special Managers of Thomas Cook Aircraft Engineering Limited.

At the same time, AlixPartners have been appointed as Special Managers to a number of other Thomas Cook Group companies.

As a result of the liquidation, the Group, including the retail business, is being immediately wound down. Retail stores have been closed with immediate effect.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

We confirm that the Special Managers, Official Receiver or anyone legitimately acting on their behalf will never ask for a fee to recover some or all the funds owed to you by any of the Thomas Cook Companies in liquidation.  If you are approached by a third party and asked to pay a fee to help you recover your money from the Thomas Cook liquidations it is highly likely that a scam is being attempted. If you think that someone is attempting to scam or defraud you, you should do the following:

 -  report all fraudulent contact from individuals via Gov.uk
-  report these approaches to Action Fraud

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also publishes a list of known fraudulent claims management companies you can check online. However, if the company that has contacted you is not on the list it does not mean that they are not attempting to scam or defraud you.

Details of how to submit your claim for monies owed prior to liquidation on 23 September 2019 can be found in the “Supplier Frequently Asked Questions” document below under statutory notices and reports.

The Official Receiver's Notice to Creditors and Reports to Creditors and Contributories

By the order of the court, the Official Receiver has made available the notice and report on the Thomas Cook Companies placed into liquidation on 23rd September 2019:

Official Receiver's notice to creditors
Thomas Cook creditor information sheet
Thomas Cook report to creditors
Currency conversion rates notice

The Liquidator has published an updated report to creditors as at 15 November 2021. This report provides an overview of the assets realised by each of the liquidation Companies and an indication of whether or not there is likely to be a distribution to creditors.

Thomas Cook Liquidator's Report to Creditors Nov 2021

This documentation will not be sent to Creditors and Contributories by post or email.

Thomas Cook Claims Site

In November 2021, the Liquidator and the Special Managers from both Interpath and AlixPartners (together, the Officeholders), launched the Thomas Cook Claims Site (the Claims Site), which can be accessed at www.thomascookukliquidations.com.

The Officeholders have set up the Claims Site to allow creditors to add details of their claims, respond to queries from the Officeholders (if any) during the adjudication of their claims, and also to check for updates on the status of their claims.

Distributions to creditors

On 8 July 2024, the Liquidator issued notice of their intention to declare a first and final distribution to unsecured creditors of certain of the Thomas Cook UK liquidation entities. This set a last date for proving of 2 August 2024.

Details of the entities anticipated to have funds available to make a distribution and the likely outcome in respect of each entity can be found at www.gov.uk/Thomas Cook.

Now that the last date for proving has passed, the Liquidator is not required to deal with any further claims or any changes to existing claim details. Creditors will no longer be able to make any changes to their claim details or create new claims on the Claims Site. Creditors can still access any previously submitted claims via the Claims Site and view the status of their claim(s).

The distributions were paid on 01 October 2024. Under “Statutory notices and reports”, we have attached notices of declaration of a dividend by the Official Receiver and Liquidator in respect of the Interpath Special Manager entities with funds available to make a distribution. Where applicable, a notice of declaration of a dividend for other Thomas Cook UK Liquidation entities can be found at www.gov.uk/Thomas Cook.

For any other Thomas Cook UK liquidation companies who have NOT issued a notice of intention to declare a distribution, this means that either no funds were realised or that they have no funds available for distribution to their unsecured creditors.

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact TCtradecreditors@interpathadvisory.com.

Links to company specific websites:

TCCT Retail Limited
Thomas Cook Aircraft Engineering Limited
Retail Travel Limited
Travel and Financial Services Limited
Future Travel Limited
The Freedom Travel Group Limited

Further information

Please note if you are a customer of Thomas Cook Group PLC please visit the dedicated Civil Aviation Authority website on www.thomascook.caa.co.uk or call 0300 303 2800 (if calling from the UK) and +44 1753 330 330 (if calling from outside the UK).

The UK government has announced a compensation scheme for Thomas Cook customers who have suffered Personal Injury. For further information relating to the scheme, please see the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thomas-cook-information-for-customers-employees-creditors-and-shareholders

We have set up a dedicated email addresses for any queries to be submitted:

Employees: TCemployees@interpathadvisory.com
Landlords: TClandlords@interpathadvisory.com
Customers: TCcustomers@interpathadvisory.com
Trade creditors: TCtradecreditors@interpathadvisory.com

We will endeavour to respond to these enquiries as soon as possible.

Further information for employees

To help direct retained and former employee to the correct support channels please see the email addresses for HR queries and October payroll and expenses queries below:

> Retained staff HR queries: TCemployees@interpathadvisory.com

> Non-retained employee HR queries such as reference and P45 queries:
      > For KPMG Special Manager appointments to ERA Solutions at enquiries@era-solutions.co.uk.
      > For Alix Partner Special Manager appointments, non-retained colleagues should direct queries to Evolve at hello@evolveis.uk;

      > October payroll queries (retained and non-retained employees) only: hrqueries@thomascook.com;

> October expenses queries (retained and non-retained employees) only: helen.richardson@thomascook.com;

> Redundant employees who wish to submit a claim relating to KPMG Special Manager appointments should contact ERA Solutions at enquiries@era-solutions.co.uk.

Specific information in relation to employees, such as Frequently Asked Questions, Job fair and vacancies information as well as details of an Employee Assistance Programme assistance that is available to employees is available below under statutory notices and reports.

Employee guidance can be found by following the link below:

www.gov.uk/your-rights-if-your-employer-is-insolvent

BUPA has announced its intention to provide free confidential counselling on health or mental health issues as well as professional legal and financial advice to Thomas Cook employees affected by the liquidation of their employer. The leaflet provided by BUPA advising how to contact them can be found under statutory notices and reports.   

Further helpful links

www.abtalifeline.org.uk

For details on how to submit a claim, please refer to the information provided above in relation to the Thomas Cook Claims Site.

What is the role of the Official Receiver?

In his role as liquidator, the Official Receiver is an officer of the court and is independent from government. The Official Receiver works for the Insolvency Service, which is an agency of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He is liquidator of the Company and his duties include realising assets, dealing with creditors' claims, and investigating the cause of failure.

The legal and practical consequence of liquidation is that the liquidator takes over the day-to-day control of the Company. In liquidation, the directors will have no continuing role in controlling and managing the Company.

The Official Receiver's priority will be to ensure the safe repatriation of the Company's customers who are overseas and wind-down the business, while also looking to achieve the best outcome for creditors.

What is the Special Managers' role?

The Special Managers were appointed by the High Court to support the Official Receiver in managing the affairs, business and property of the Company, in accordance with the powers and duties contained in the order appointing them.

The Special Managers act as agents of the Company, without personal liability.

The Special Managers of Thomas Cook Retail Limited (in liquidation) are Jim Tucker and David Pike.

James Robert Tucker and David John Pike are authorised to act as insolvency practitioners by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

The Special Managers are bound by the Insolvency Code of Ethics.

The Officeholders are Data Processors of personal data as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018. Personal data will be kept secure and processed only for matters relating to the appointment. For further information, please see our Privacy Policy.

This link will take you to the Interpath Data Controller Privacy Notice: Privacy Policy