Midsized travel management company Fox World Travel has
ambitious plans to more than double its size over the next five years, and
despite the ongoing consolidation across the TMC industry, acquisition is not
the game plan for that growth, CEO Chip Juedes said.
To that end, the Wisconsin-based TMC has invested a
"tremendous amount of resources" in terms of infrastructure for its
associates, Juedes said. The company currently reports 336 associates across
the U.S. and is on track to reach 350 by the end of the year.
"As of late, we've now had to shut out our job postings
in many cases within days and weeks, instead of hoping that they're going to
come in, as word has gotten out about the work we have done for our
associates," he said.
The sales team has doubled in size over the past 12 to 18
months, with some additional personnel brought in for sales support roles and as
business development managers, COO Beth Marino said.
As a further boost to its growth plans, Fox this summer
announced it was partnering with longtime TMC executive Tim Fleming as a
"strategic growth advisor" for the company. Fleming most recently was
Corporate Travel Management's president for North America, a role he assumed when
CTM acquired Travel & Transport, where he was president and COO.
Fleming will be consulting with Fox's leadership team to accelerate the TMC's growth.
Fleming said he agreed to the partnership because he saw a
"real opportunity" for the TMC to meet its growth expectations.
"As we did acquisitions with agencies, we found many
times that there weren't a lot of standards and there wasn't a lot of
infrastructure," he said. "At Fox, there is, and it's really
well-positioned for the growth."
One particular reason Fox is partnering with Fleming is his
experience in the space of working with larger customers, Marino said. The TMC
is "being aggressively sought out by much larger customers," and
although it already counts some companies among BTN's Corporate Travel 100
among its accounts today, it sees a lot of opportunity to grow among large
customers.
While Fox's business is now "primarily domestic,"
with all associates based in the U.S., it said it has a large number of global
clients supported by its partnership with BCD Travel. Of course, "there
are as many accounts with $1 million in air spend that have business in seven
countries as there are accounts with $50 million," Marino said.
To court those new clients, Juedes said he sees "a gap
in the market for the high customer service and high touch without giving up on
our culture." Fox already has doubled the size of its business over the
past few years—transactions surpassed pre-Covid levels about a year and a half
ago—but it also was able to maintain a 100 percent retention rate during that
growth period, according to Fleming.
Marino said Fox's structure as a private company also is
aiding its growth plans, as it is able to invest without worrying about
quarterly results.
"We're not focused on profit margin right now,"
Marino said. "We're focused on growth, and that's allowing us to make
critical investments for the foundation for our future."
Fleming said Fox's work on the technology side was one
standout to him in its growth potential, citing the work of chief information
officer Sam Hilgendorf, who he called an "AI guru." In particular, he
highlighted their work in in online booking process with chat features for
customers.
"They are things you don't expect to see in the
marketplace," Fleming said. "You can be a midsized agency and
maintain a good place in the space, but to grow, you need really good
technology."
With New Distribution Capability, Fox has "embraced NDC
with open arms" and has issued a significant number of NDC tickets to its
early adopter program, Marino said. To this point, the big draw to NDC for
clients has been lower fares, as "we haven't had the opportunity to really
explore the bundles fully, but we are ready for that."
Fox also has been accessing NDC through the global
distribution system, though "we believe there will be other alternative
options in the future that will be better for all parties involved," she
said. "We are actively in conversations to make that a reality, and
hopefully soon."