THOMAS COOK NA SELLS ABC TO ALTSCHUL

Thomas Cook North America (TCNA) has confirmed that it has finalized a deal — reached about a month ago — to sell its US brand, ABC Global Services to Eric Altschul, who was formerly TCNA’s senior vice-president of consumer distribution in Canada. Dean Moore, CEO, TCNA, said of the sale, “ABC has always been a profitable division of our group, consistently performing well. However it operates in a travel segment that has no commonality with our principal tour operating business, as well as being based in the US which brings its owns set of challenges and costs in relation to legal, accounting and tax issues.” Moore continued, “The divestment process, which commenced last year, has included a range of prospective buyers, including Eric [Altschul], who were interested in the brand, and with the recent announcement of the sale of Thomas Cook’s North American assets to Red Label Vacations (Red Tag), we feel the time is now right to sell.” Altschul has left TCNA and is now running ABC Global Services operations from the company’s headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois.