FCm Travel Solutions is launching Corporate Traveller, a new business brand dedicated to the SME market. From February 2010 all FCm’s existing SME clients – worth £150 million in the UK – and any new SME business will be handled by the specialist Corporate Traveller division. Meanwhile FCm will focus purely on TMS business.  Both brands continue to share Flight Centre Limited as their parent company.

FCm UK has operated a successful SME programme for several years.  In 2009 the company won £60 million new SME clients and the Corporate Traveller division is on track to double that figure in 2010.

 

“The framework for launching Corporate Traveller is already in place as we restructured the company in the UK two years ago into TMS and SME teams for operations, account management and sales”, explains Debbie Carling, executive general manager, FCm UK. “We have now split TMS and SME into two distinct brand offerings in order to service the different types of business even more effectively.”

 

The name Corporate Traveller is not unknown in the business travel arena, as it was Flight Centre Limited’s corporate brand specialising in SME business from 1993 to 2004 primarily in Australia and New Zealand, but also with a presence in the UK, South Africa, USA and Canada. In 2004, after a series of strategic acquisitions and partnership agreements worldwide, Flight Centre consolidated its business travel operations as FCm Travel Solutions, the largest Australian based global travel management company.

 

The newly launched Corporate Traveller in the UK provides a one-stop travel service 24/7 to small and medium sized businesses spending £5,000 to £1.5 million per annum. Key staff contacts for current SME clients remain unchanged. Dedicated expert travel managers will offer a highly personal service, extensive product range and best price guarantee. SME clients will also benefit from generic online booking tools and standard MI reporting. Services will be paid for by transaction fees and there are no fixed contracts.

 

Corporate Traveller will be led by Tom Walley, formerly head of UK retail at Flight Centre Limited. Graeme Milne takes up the position of head of sales for the new brand. He previously headed up the SME sales team for FCm Travel Solutions

 

“The launch of the Corporate Traveller brand signals a renewed focus on our desire to provide a high touch service that is right for SME clients,” adds Debbie Carling. “It is becoming increasingly important to tailor brands and their associated offering to the needs of a specific marketplace as every customer has bespoke requirements. Corporate Traveller will challenge conventional thinking as to the kind of service a client can expect regardless of how much they spend on corporate travel. Corporate Traveller aims to be the dominant player in the SME market by 2014.”

 

FCm Travel Solutions will continue to operate in the UK as Flight Centre Limited’s flagship global travel management company with dedicated teams delivering personalised solutions and measurable cost savings to multi-million pound clients. FCm Travel Solutions will be led by Paul East [title], David Thomas, sales director and Alex Cousins, account management director.

 

Debbie Carling will oversee both brands in her role as executive general manager.