Short's Travel Management this month announced it acquired Executive Travel in North Kansas City, Mo., for an undisclosed amount. David LeCompte, president and CEO of the Overland Park, Kan.-based travel management company, said to expect further acquisitions in the coming months.
"We haven't been on an acquisition growth strategy, but more organic growth," he said. "It seems recently there have been quite a lot of opportunities for acquisitions and we're actively exploring three right now that are in travel, but not necessarily on the corporate side. We'll pursue it, if the price is right."
Acquisitions among small to midmarket agencies are becoming more commonplace, said Carol Ann Salcito, president of Norwalk, Conn.-based Management Alternatives. "There's going to be more of this because of the economy—it's not easy to be a small business these days," Salcito said. "There are tremendous economies you can bring forth by merging two companies' HR, legal and finance departments, for example."
LeCompte said Executive Travel appealed to him because the two firms have a similar corporate culture. "There are synergies," he said. "It aligns well with our business mix, which prior to the acquisition was 60 percent corporate, 20 percent meetings and incentives and 20 percent sports business. The idea popped up through someone representing them. We talked for several months and I liked the company's managerial style and I saw a lot of benefits to integrating the staff."
Executive Travel's percentage of client bookings made online is higher than that of Short's clients, LeCompte said, adding that he looked forward to bringing Executive's success in that arena to his business.
The integration is expected to end in September, at which time Short's headquarters will relocate to new offices in Overland Park. Scott White, president and owner of Executive Travel, will remain with the company and report to LeCompte. "We're determining his position as we speak," LeCompte said, who added that he and White have been friends for some time. "He will evolve into a senior role within the company." Leading the integration team is Austin Lorenzen, manager of special operations at Short's and a Six Sigma black belt.
A largely Midwestern agency with offices in Indiana, Iowa and Missouri, Short's in 2004 also bought Blackhawk World Travel in Moline, Ill., and Passport Travel in Kansas City, Kan., in 2001. Short's mainly has clients in the $1 million to $6 million range of air volume, although LeCompte said the company serves at least one very large client as well. As a participant in BTN's 2006 Annual Business Travel Survey
(BTN, May 29), Short's Travel Management ranked 20th out of 35 participating corporate-owned agencies, with 132,183 in Airlines Reporting Corp. transactions.