“The group has been through a difficult period, but much has been achieved which has strengthened th

Harriet Green made her first statement since joining last week as group chief executive as Cook reported strong holiday inn hotels late summer sales in the past 12 weeks although cumulative UK bookings were down by 1% at the end of July.
"The group has been through a difficult period, holiday inn hotels but much has been achieved which has strengthened the balance sheet and improved liquidity. The strength of the Group's brands and the quality of its businesses and people provides a foundation from which to bring the business back to full strength."
The completion of the sale and leaseback of eight further aircraft and the disposal of HCV in July generated an additional holiday inn hotels £122 million which have been received holiday inn hotels and the disposal of Cook's Indian business is expected to deliver a further £87 million.
'Overall UK bookings remain stable. holiday inn hotels Mainstream bookings have shown a significant improvement in recent weeks and there is now 33% less left to sell, whilst pricing over the last four weeks is up 8%, demonstrating that yield measures introduced as part of the turnaround plan are starting to take effect."
Differentiated product accounts for 35% of mainstream holidays, up 7 percentage points on last year. The programme is 88% sold and departures in June and July have achieved record load factors. Bookings remain strong for the specialist independent business with bookings up 8% year on year.
"The group's quarterly financial trend is showing signs of improvement and we expect that in the fourth quarter the variance will narrow delivering a full year result broadly in line with expectations."