Independent tour operators may put in a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading concerning the Thomas Cook merger with Co-op.
Page & Moy, which sells mostly direct but with almost all remaining trade sales though Coop, plans to garner opinion from the likes of Inghams and Kuoni on the merger before deciding whether to put a case to the OFT.
Page and Moy chief executive William Burton has said that the merger could mean Thomas Cook will hog around 70% of the market. However, chief executive at Thomas Cook Manny Fontenla-Novoa retaliated by saying the figure was more like a third of the retail market.
