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THOMAS Cook is to resurrect the popular Sunset name and introduce a mass-market Thomas Cook brand after admitting JMC has failed to work across all market sectors.

The travel giant confessed its JMC "one brand fits all strategy" had flopped after its flamboyant £200 million launch in 1999 under the helm of managing director Simon Vincent.

Tour operations managing director Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: "At the time the logic was sound but life has moved on. Everyone is adopting a master brand strategy.

"What came out of our research was that one brand doesn't work. JMC doesn't stretch across all market sectors. It should not have come as a surprise to us."

But predictions that JMC would be scrapped and the Thomas Cook name used across the board were dismissed by Fontenla-Novoa.

JMC's scope will be reduced to the young families and couples market where research showed it had an awareness level as high as First Choice.

The move represents the division of the JMC brand into three, in which the Thomas Cook name will be the largest and most dominant.