No German company has ever gone through such a marked transformation as TUI AG. The Group emerged from the former Preussag AG and within just a few years developed from an industrial conglomerate to an innovative tourism and shipping concern. Today TUI is a company with about 63,000 employees throughout the world, and which leads the market in Europe. National economies can take decades to go through such a transformation.
In the middle of the nineties, in a difficult economic climate, Preussag AG’s management made the far-reaching decision to enter the expanding service sector market focussing on tourism. A rapid process started, characterised by restructuring, investment and disinvestment. In 1997 the then Preussag acquired Hapag-Lloyd AG, a strong partner with its own travel agency chain, airline and world-wide logistics service. With a one hundred percent stake in TUI Deutschland the Group secured a quality holiday travel brand. The tourism value chain was completed by taking over the FIRST travel agency chain and the acquisition of Magic Life: the vertically integrated tourism group was born.
A decisive step forwards on the European market was taken in 2000 with the takeover of the British Thomson Travel Group – including its strong brands and holdings in Scandinavia, holdings such as Fritidsresor. In the same year the Preussag Group acquired a stake in the French travel group Nouvelles Frontières – the full takeover has now been completed. Through more acquisitions and by forming companies – for example, in Belgium, in Switzerland and in Eastern Europe – the Group positioned itself on all the important European markets. And as a result had further developed to become the world’s leading tourism group.
The re-structuring of the Group is now almost complete. Over the last few years the Group has systematically divested itself of its industrial holdings and has clearly structured its business portfolio. Whereas the turnover of the former core business amounted to 93 percent of the total revenue in 1997, today only a handful of industrial operations are left. Yet even these are being wound up or will be sold in the foreseeable future.
The logistics activities are grouped within TUI AG under the umbrella of Hapag-Lloyd AG. In doing so they were concentrated on the profitable growth area of shipping. With the takeover of the Canadian shipping company CP Ships TUI has considerably strengthened this business sector.
In 2005 the tourism sector of the company contributed more than 72 percent to the revenue. Shipping contributed 19 percent to revenue and forms the second business sector. In the medium term TUI aims at further expanding both business sectors with each contributing 50 percent to revenue and profit.
