BCD Travel Furthers Worldwide Acquisition Strategy, Drives Tech Integration

Following a recent rash of acquisitions, BCD Travel said it plans to continue to expand its global presence in the second half of 2007 by focusing on garnering agencies in emerging markets, providing consistent technology and service platforms, as well as tightening its sales force to better align with regional operations, company CEO Mike Buckman told BTN last week.

Late last month, BCD Travel acquired Tommy Tobin Travel, the corporate travel division of its Irish partner, Joseph Barter & Sons, for an undisclosed amount. The company also recently acquired stakes in agencies in Brazil and Sweden and signed new partners in Jordan and Israel.

"We are going to continue to invest," Buckman said. "We're going to continue to add partners where we feel they are prepared and can support our customers, but in the end we've got to be wherever they need us to be. The key areas are going to be Asia/Pacific, Latin America and perhaps one or two more in Europe."

BCD also plans to integrate technology and customer service solutions to streamline processes, which would enable the travel management company to better compete for clients' multinational business, Buckman said. "Another driver with growth was picking up new business in other parts of the world through existing customers. We have existing customers in certain parts of the world, and now we're able to pick up their business in some of these new places."

BCD's European operations are in the process of standardizing technology platforms and processes. "One part is to look where you can invest in or acquire additional businesses, but another key part of the investment is just building up more infrastructure, whether it's call centers or technology or sales forces. You can't do one without the other," Buckman said. "Rather than having to build some big call center to handle a multitude of clients, we should be able to network our people together so that we can flow transactions and calls from one location to another."

BCD also will tweak its global sales structure in the wake of the recent departure of former executive vice president of global sales Travis Tanner. The position will remain vacant, Buckman said. "We've got a number of global salespeople and we are going to tie them more closely to each of our key regions, since most of the big corporate sales are coordinated out of a region anyway."