Frosch Continues Travel Management Acquisitions

The acquisitive Frosch International Travel has completed the purchase, for an undisclosed amount, of travel management company Thomas Travel Service, a 65 percent corporate agency with $15 million in annual total travel sales.

The acquisition was completed following the integration of Thomas Travel Service's three Pennsylvania offices last month into a single office in Chalfton, Pa., which now encompasses 30 employees. The company handles more than 200 small and midsize corporate travel accounts, primarily in supply markets for pharmaceutical companies, according to former president of Thomas Travel Service Tom Thomas.

Thomas has transitioned to manager of vacation sales for Frosch's Pennsylvania office and Nicole Morris continues to head the corporate travel division of the former Thomas Travel Service.

Earlier last month, Houston-based Frosch acquired San Mateo, Calif.-based Bryan International Travel, a 60 percent corporate travel shop, according to Frosch president Bryan Leibman, who added that his company has made 15 acquisitions in the past five years, including the 2007 acquisition of Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Total Traveler. Frosch, which claims corporate travel accounts for 60 percent of its business, now has 19 locations in the United States and the United Kingdom encompassing 560 employees, and services clients globally as the U.S. representative for the Global Strategic Markets agency network.

Frosch handles accounts primarily between $1 million and $10 million in air volume, but has some accounts with as much as $20 million in air volume, according to Leibman, who claimed that Frosch International currently handles more than $350 million in gross travel sales and has 30 percent year-over-year sales growth.

Consultant Bob Joselyn, president and CEO of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Joselyn, Tepper & Associates, said recent travel management consolidation reflects industry demographics.

"I don't think this is a business condition that is causing this," said Joselyn, who introduced Thomas to Leibman, but was not involved in brokering of the deal.

"We are seeing a lot of people who own well-run agencies that have survived 9/11 that have found ways to compete with Internet competition," said Joselyn, "and we have a number of people who are getting towards the end of their careers and are looking at exit strategies and retirement."