Woodside, Uniglobe Ally For Buying Clout

<B> Woodside, Uniglobe Ally For Buying Clout</B>

By Sarah Welt

Woodside Travel Trust and Uniglobe Travel International last month announced a strategic alliance that will combine their $22 billion sales volume and allow them to collaborate on bulk buying and net fare negotiating, as well as develop or acquire a standardized set of automation tools for both companies.

The two travel agency networks plan to focus on online commerce, hotel programs, emergency traveler assistance, cruise products and the international market. A new Alliance Advisory Group, comprising senior and mid-level management, constituents and vendors, is being formed to determine the best opportunities and develop 30-, 90- and 120-day action plans. Because this is not a merger or an acquisition, no ownership or operational changes will occur and there are no plans to do any joint advertising or marketing.

Bethesda, Md.-based Woodside Travel Trust claims among its members 26 of the 90 largest U.S. corporate travel agencies (<I>BTN,</I> May 25, 1998). It brings to the table data consolidation expertise, having consolidated data for $7 billion worth of its customers' volume. Uniglobe, based in Vancouver, brings online trading experience, thanks to its publicly held subsidiary, Uniglobe Travel Online.

WTT executive vice president Alan Slan said the groups already are "negotiating pan-geographic deals with one or more carriers." While he wouldn't specify further, Slan did say that the talks involve "inventory acquisition, net rate deals and override agreements."

Both groups also are interested in maximizing the opportunities to sell leisure products to their corporate customers. Additionally, they have discussed how to make the bulk buying opportunities that have been realized on the leisure side a reality with corporate vendors. However, Woodside president and CEO Ivan Michael Schaeffer said the two organizations are thinking about bulk buying in different terms. "The importance of data consolidation is that if we know what we are actually doing, lots of things can happen," he said.

For now, the first thing on the agenda is hotel negotiations, and Schaeffer said he already is having conversations with a number of chains. The two organizations are discussing how Uniglobe can leverage WTT's hotel program and make it available to its own constituents.

Regarding emergency service, WTT has less than a year left on its contract with Atlas Travel in Houston and "is pretty deeply into conversations to make Uniglobe our preferred supplier," said Schaeffer.

Uniglobe chairman and CEO U. Gary Charlwood said the alliance offers a meshing of two strong organizations, with little overlap in membership. "The magic of an alliance compared with the politics of a major merger is that we are in our market niche and they are in theirs. There is no competition because their specialization is in the large fortune 500 companies and ours is in the small-to-medium sector.