ATLANTA -- WorldTravel Partners and BTI Americas have 120 days to
make some heady decisions about their future, according to
officials at both companies.
Those decisions include the possibility of a merger as well as a
decision on which company leaves its respective global agency
network. Either BTI Americas dumps Business Travel International or
World Travel Partners bolts from GTM Travel Management. Both
networks are based in London.
"If there should be some kind of merger between our two
companies it won't work to have two international organizations,"
said Dee Runyan, chairman of GTM and senior vice president of
industry relations and corporate travel services at WorldTravel
Partners.
As reported earlier, WorldTravel International, the parent
company of Atlanta-based WorldTravel Partners, helped finance a
management buyout of BTI Americas by seven top executives of the
Northbrook, Ill.-based agency.
The team comprises Ralph Manaker, president of BTI Americas;
Connie Fitzgerald, executive vice president of BTI Americas Partner
Group; Tom Lacny, executive vice president of business development
and international development; Becky Nichols, executive vice
president of national operations; Jim Pagano, executive vice
president of industry relations and Northeast region; Lee Turner,
executive vice president of relationship management, and Rick
Webking, chief financial officer.
As part of the deal, WorldTravel Partners is considering a
merger with BTI Americas, which would create a mega-agency with
$5.1 billion in annual volume.
BTI Americas has annual volume of about $4.5 billion and 1,200
offices in North America. WorldTravel Partners has annual volume of
more than $600 million.
Industry observers said any combination of BTI Americas and
WorldTravel Partners would make a formidable agency. "WorldTravel
Partners is a highly respected, well-resourced company with an
excellent technology subsidiary in TTG," said David Hillman of
Deloitte & Touche.
The Travel Technology Group, a unit of WorldTravel partners,
helped develop the Corre self-booking system.
"You have two very good agencies," said Carol Salcito, president
of Management Alternatives, a Stamford, Conn.-based travel
management consulting firm. "BTI Americas has a very good
foundation. WTP not only has a good foundation but has very strong
technology in play.
"If both organizations are wise enough to learn from others'
mistakes, they can make a wonderful union."
Salcito said other mergers, such as the American Express
acquisition of Thomas Cook in the mid-1990s, suffered because the
technology and customer relationships that Thomas Cook brought to
the table were not given enough consideration by the acquiring
firm.
"The things that other agencies have done when they join forces
is that one agency typically had strength in, let's say,
technology," Salcito said. "The parent organization, as they
consolidated, didn't realize the technology [of the company being
acquired] was superior to their own."
Salcito warned that if WorldTravel Partners and BTI Americas do
merge, the companies should not walk in, replace account executives
and replace the existing technology without careful consideration
of the customers. "Clients are used to using one thing," Salcito
said. "To change that [would cause clients to] very quickly forget
their allegiances. Their allegiances are not necessarily to the
name of the company but to the people servicing them."
Mike Spooner, corporate travel manager of Reynolds Metals Co., a
$20 million account based in Richmond, Va., said the deal could
help his agency, WorldTravel Partners, gain more leverage with
suppliers.
"Overall I think it's a positive move for WorldTravel Partners
to get involved and see if there are some synergies there," Spooner
said.