Chris Thelen is CEO of newly launched TakeTwo Travel Solutions. He has returned to the UK after a four-year stint as CEO of CTM’s US
business. In 2004 he led the management buyout of Chambers Travel Group,
its European expansion, and in 2015 its sale to Corporate Travel
Management.
Former CTM leaders Chris Thelen and Julie Cope have launched TakeTwo Travel Solutions, a new premium TMC targeting SMEs. Thelen spoke to BTN Europe editor Andy Hoskins about the timing and rationale behind the launch.
BTN Europe: How did the launch of TakeTwo Travel Solutions come about?
Chris Thelen: I left CTM early in July 2020 and was going to retire from this industry and do something different, but I love this industry. I learned so much at CTM – about the scaling of business, about the tech aspect, the planning… the journey has been amazing but also tough as I was balancing a relationship here in London with the North American operation of CTM. The conversation [about launching a TMC] started once Julie [Cope] was let go. I didn’t want to consider setting up a TMC and be in competition with what would have been my former team. Everything seems to have come together at once. It’s a great opportunity and the market’s moving. We saw how it was moving to online TMCs but now it’s moving on again and corporates need hands-on service.
BTNE: Explain the rationale behind launching at this particular point in time.
CT: The industry has consolidated so much and I think there’s still a huge space for a next generation independent TMC. There are fewer independent players now that have a very premium service focus but with technology too. We’ve seen a lot of businesses move as much as they can online but you can’t do that in the pandemic now – you have to bring that expertise back now. With all the consolidation and mergers… when clients come back it could be like dealing with a new company for them. This is the right time to get back in the game, just as corporates are beginning to move and thinking about the post-Covid world. There’s very much a place for TakeTwo on a significant scale providing a transatlantic solution with key partners in other parts of the globe.
BTNE: What’s your target market?
CT: We’re targeting premium SMEs where travel is a crucial component of what they do and need the support. Everyone can have great technology now – there’s so much out there – but you’ve got to have the right structure, strategy and vision and it’s about how you marry it with service and people and relationship. The clients we’ve signed so far can’t wait to get on planes. They need to travel. They can’t do everything virtually. Yes, we’ll have clients that are a cut-down version of what they were pre-Covid but it’s those where there’s more complexity that we’re targeting. But we can do the easy, seamless stuff online too. We’re a service-based business with strong technology that still delivers value on those easy transactions.
BTNE: What business do you have under your belt already?
CT: We have clients from many sectors… finance, investments, architects, trusts – a whole range. Some of them are based on previous relationships. We have a client portfolio with a pre-Covid [travel] spend of £11.5 million and a new business pipeline in the region of £40 million.
BTNE: Tell us about your expansion plans.
CT: We’re focused here in Europe at the moment on getting the model right but we hope to announce something before Christmas about the US. As for joining a network… I would rather build our own network so we know they fulfil what we need and so they can use our technology and our brand and we can give them more business and they can send more back to us here.
BTNE: How have you gone about recruiting your team?
CT: So far we have recruited 20 staff, most of whom have been made redundant elsewhere, including at CTM. It’s talent that might have left the industry. You can’t blame companies for laying people off in this situation. Employees are our partners and an important component in our relationships with our customers. Some of that gets lost these days in the fast climb to be the biggest. I feel the art of business travel is being lost a bit. Our consultants are our travel heroes – it’s a profession. There’s been so many people leaving the industry; we’re able to bring some back and build a premier league team of talent. It inspires me so much.
BTNE: How will you charge for your services – will it be predominantly transaction fees?
CT: Yes, they’re here to stay. The new subscription fee model is interesting. We’re looking at that particularly around some technology we want to deploy. It’s a combination of those and of management fees too. I know there’s a big buzz about subscription fees but we need to look at what’s right for the customer. There are other TMCs with much higher transaction fees than we need to charge because we’re not necessarily this white glove thing, but we’re premium.
BTNE: What technology will you offer?
CT: We’ll have a booking tool available for clients – I can’t say who it is yet – and we’ll also have some self-built technology too that we can enhance things on. That might be something with which we do some subscription-based pricing.
BTNE: How are you financing the business?
CT: I’m financing the business. It’s not like I have a team of 50 that I’ve been supporting during the pandemic. We’re a business where employees want to come to us and we’re able to scale. We have a lot of sales going on, plus testing, soft launching… we don’t have huge costs at the moment. We also have private investors that would love to come in but I want to keep control. The management team will also have an interest in the business.
BTNE: What are your ultimate goals?
CT: We’re looking at customers with up to £10 million in annual business travel spend in Europe. We’ve certainly got the expertise, scalability and technology to deliver for them. And as we look to expand further, particularly in the US, the client size is going to get bigger. I’m a growth CEO, not a cost-cutter. I’ve taken businesses from nowhere and grown them significantly and I’ve learned a lot about acquisitions with Jamie (Pherous, executive director, CTM) and been part of some of that in the US. There’s an acquisition or two here that I think would fit us very well so if that comes off it would be amazing. And there are potentially one or two in the US but I don’t want to lose focus on TakeTwo and what we’re about. I do believe we can organically grow this business on our own and I think there’s a lot of TMCs that are distracted by all the M&As going on currently.