<H1>Getz Travel Gets Growing</H1><H3>By Stefani C. O'Connor</H3>San Francisco - Getz International Travel Inc., which ended 1994 at the bottom of the top 50 U.S. travel management companies, has taken a decidedly proactive turn toward pumping up the volume by aggressively growing its domestic and international operations.
The $60 million agency, part of the $6 billion Marmon Group of companies held by Chicago's Pritzker family, recently purchased New Wave Travel, a $6 million Los Angeles-based agency specializing in the advertising and communications industries. In addition, Getz has expanded its West Coast operations and plans to repeat the process on the East Coast, Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and Europe.
"Our philosophy and our desire is to grow the company through acquisition and enveloping strategic markets, the feeling being that we need to be a certain size in the new world," said Tom Walker, vice president-sales and marketing for Getz International. Critical mass for the organization, he noted, would hover "around $200 million, where we feel we can continue to attract attention from the vendors."
Walker said he expected the agency, which has a 95 percent corporate travel base, to do about $70 million in air volume this year.
Part of that anticipated increase will stem from the New Wave acquisition. Walker said the purchase is significant not only because it gives the company immediate presence in another major West Coast market, but opens up a new dedicated client base with notable capture of advertising and communications accounts.
A concentrated hold of these industries by an East Coast agency, said Walker, is something Getz also is looking to add to its base of corporate travel clients, which includes manufacturing, high-tech, legal and software accounts. The company has been considering agencies with volumes of about $10 million in New York and Connecticut, he said.
New Wave founder Chuck Carder is serving as general manager following the acquisition. "I felt it was important that we get with somebody on a national, semi-mega basis, so that we could take on the new technology," said Carder. Toward that end, New Wave has installed e-mail ticketing capabilities, upgraded its Sabre system and will soon be hooked into MIS reports through Getz.
Cities being considered in the company's domestic expansion include Dallas and Denver, where operations may include a combination of corporate and leisure markets. In addition to its new L.A. acquisition, Getz has operations in San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, Indianapolis and Orlando. Overseas, Getz operates in Budapest and Warsaw.
Getz also is looking at Prague in anticipation of increased American businesses moving there. It has leased office space in London and expects to move in by the end of the second quarter.