Corporate Travel Management buys Smart50 stalwart Travelcorp

Brisbane-based travel giant Corporate Travel Management has swooped on Smart50 stalwart Travelcorp, buying the Sydney-based travel agency for an undisclosed price.

CTM, owned by former Young Rich list member Jamie Pherous, is one of Australia’s largest privately-owned travel companies and has grown aggressively through a string of acquisitions, including the purchase in August this year of the New Zealand-based Cavalier Travel Services, Sydney’s Travelogic in 2008, Perth’s Debretts in 2006 and Melbourne’s Rhodes Corporate Travel in 2001.

The company’s revenue is estimated to now be over $500 million.

In this deal, CTM picks up Travelcorp’s offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and a team of 52 people.

Pherous told SmartCompany the two companies were an almost perfect fit.

“We’ve known the company and we’ve socialised with the company for a long time. But we are on the same system, and that’s very rare.”

“We’ve got the support services to make the staff more effective in their day-to-day jobs.”

Pherous expects the integration to go smoothly. Travelcorp’s staff will move into CTM’s offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and Logas will stay with CTM.

Travelcorp founder’s Helen Logas has also taken a stake in CTM as part of the cash-and-shares deal.

“Helen loves our business model and is keen to have shares in the bigger business, which we are very keen on.”

Pherous says he remains on the look out for more acquisitions, provided they are a good fit for CTM.

“Our philosophy comes back to that same old thing. The idea when you do these things you want to minimise change.”

Logas, who started the business in 1994, says the similarities between the two companies sealed the deal.

“The fact that we both utilise exactly the same software, customer facing technology and systems means minimal change to our clients and staff. If anything, CTM’s sophisticated support services will enable our staff to deliver greater value to our clients,” she said in a statement.

Travelcorp has been one of the mainstays of SmartCompany’s Smart50 list for the past three years. In 2010 the company was ranked in 39^th position, with revenue of $65 million, up from $35 million three years ago.

Logas started Travelcorp after leaving her job as a high school teacher to pursue her dream of business ownership.

“Travel was my dream profession, and I decided to make my dream come true. And after some good grounding and solid training I decided to open my own company.”

“I believe one of my greatest strengths is negotiation, and I had good negotiation skills, even if I didn’t have the business strength to back me up at that time. When I put those negotiated air fares in the marketplace we’d get a great response,” she told SmartCompany in 2009.

However, the company was buffeted by a number of travel industry disasters, including the September 2001 terror attacks, the outbreak of SARS and the collapse of Ansett.

But her biggest challenge was the departure of a key staff member.

That was probably one of the biggest things I’ve had to suffer. He came in and said, ‘I’m leaving’ and I told him to stop joking. He said he was serious and walked out with literally over a third of the business,” Logas said.

“I could have gone legal, or a lot of other things, but chose not to, which was a very hard decision. I was emotionally quite upset and took a toll on me and clouded my business sense.”

Logas eventually got her business back on track by beefing up her business development function and aggressively chasing big customers such as Coca Cola.