Travel management company Egencia has bought online booking agency Traveldoo.
Christophe Peymirat, Egencia’s SVP for EMEA & APAC, said the acquisition of the self booking tool is part of a “multi-brand” expansion strategy.
Speaking exclusively to ABTN, he said Egencia and Traveldoo would remain as separate brands, and may even compete for the same business in some circumstances.
The two brands follow different philosophies, explained Peymirat: "We aim to accelerate our growth through servicing the business travel market through a different angle."
Traveldoo offers companies who don’t want to work with a TMC web and mobile platforms for booking business travel. It will focus on large companies with high volumes of bookings.
Egencia, meanwhile will continue providing travel management services for all sizes of companies.
"When we look at what Egencia has been doing over the past 10 years, we have been good at selling an integrated model to small and medium corporations, and some large accounts," said Peymirat.
"But a number of very large companies still wish to buy in an unbundled way, to buy service on one side and technology on the other side. That is the reason why we are buying Traveldoo.
"The acquisition will really enable us to address the requirements of companies that want technology only. Although we believe that the integrated model brings a lot of benefits in terms of efficiency and quality of service, some customers still want to do their own jigsaw."
Peymirat also said the UK market should expect to see more from Traveldoo in the near future.
While it is relatively unknown in the UK at the moment, he said, it is one of the key players in France, and would be seeking to grow its business across the channel.
Egencia also remains on the acquisition path, said Peymirat, with a focus on key markets where it is not yet represented.
"Acquisition for us is mainly a way to enter new geographies and ramp up our commercial presence," he said. "There might be more to come, but it’s not a must."