Rosenbluth Partners, Navigant In Talks

The former partners of Rosenbluth International in 44 countries today said they are in discussions with Englewood, Colo.-based Navigant International to replace Rosenbluth with Navigant as their U.S. partner. Speaking to Business Travel News today at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in Dublin, officials from Navigant and the alliance that formerly worked with Rosenbluth said they plan to establish a joint identity and to iron out contractual details by year-end. Navigant's relationship with Lufthansa City Centers, meanwhile, is ending. Among the unnamed network's 44 nations, only Brazil overlaps with an operation owned by Navigant, which also owns locations in Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

"When Amex announced it was buying Rosenbluth, we believed we had the unique situation of sticking together," said Frederic Frere, CEO of TravelStore in Portugal and Spain, a former Rosenbluth partner. "Having served a lot of international accounts together under one unique umbrella, we have an opportunity to tell the market we can maintain the good service we have been giving them, and the first objective is to identify a strong North American partner."

Frere called "wishful thinking" one Rosenbluth executive's assertion that more than 90 percent of the partnership business being handled by Rosenbluth affiliates would transition to Amex. According to Navigant Integrated Services president Mike Premo, there are "more than 10 and less than 100" multinational accounts being handled in the affiliates program.