CORPORATE TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL CEO IAN WHITE TALKS TO BOB PAPWORTH
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN the UK cor- porate travel industry and Iceland – the country, as opposed to the frozen-food chain – has not been an altogether happy one. In travel terms, the Nordic nation will forever be associated with the weeks of eruption disruption caused by Eyjafjallajokull. Not only does Iceland plunge Europe’s
aviation industry into utter chaos, it does so by means of a sub-glacial volcano whose lexicologically-challenging name appears designed to induce spell- check seizures the world over. Bardar- bunga, the latest pyrotechnic peril, is a comparative doddle. There is a plus side, though: if it wasn’t for Iceland, there’s a strong chance that Cheshire-based travel manage- ment company (TMC) Corporate Travel International (CTI) simply wouldn’t exist. This (admittedly-tenuous) link starts in
1976, when the UK’s Labour government was reluctantly forced to accept that the UK could not win the so-called Cod Wars with Iceland. In return for permission to land a
frankly paltry annual catch, Britain finally recognised the Nordic nation’s 200-mile exclusion zone. Facing a virtually fish- free future, Hull’s deep-water trawler fleet looked to have been holed below the water-line. Except, that is, in the case of one company which, rather than succumb to sinking feelings, kitted out its vessels with the latest technological gizmos and set about searching the Atlantic seabed for mineral deposits, sunken treasure, the Titanic… anything that would keep the boats in business. Boats need crews, and crews need to travel, so the far-sighted former fisherfolk
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IAN WHITE’S first job was with Matador Travel in Hull, then with Stellaris Travel, at the time owned by the J Marr fishing family. Following that, Ian formed Corporate Travel International which, at the time the company was sold in 2004, had offices in Hull, York, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool.
He joined TD Travel in 2005 and led a management buy-out in 2012, which was shortly followed by the acquisition of Hotelscene in 2013, and the combined company re-branded as CTI in October 2013.
CTI now has seven locations in the UK and a turnover in excess of £100 million per annum. In 2014 CTI launched CTI Sherpa – the knowledge-based online booking tool for corporate travel.
Ian loves sport and plays squash regularly at his local club in Ferriby.
we had always had the idea of bringing the two companies together, because the market wanted a one-stop shop.” In 2012, with the management buy-out backing of Lloyds Bank’s LDC private equity arm, that idea became a reality. Needham now rejoices in the title of CTI’s chief innovation officer. The transformation has been little short of remarkable. In 2010, TD Travel was ranked equal 25th in Buying Busi- ness Travel’s 50 Leading TMCs rankings. It made an operating profit of less than £250,000 on UK sales of £36 million. For the following three years, sales
hovered between £40 million and £45 million and TD Travel’s position in the rankings peaked at 26th before slipping back to 29th spot. This year, after re-branding in 2013
as CTI, the company has leapt 11 places to 18th position. Sales have more than doubled to £102 million; staff numbers have gone from 74 to 179. Equally, if not more impressive is CTI
enlisted the aid of a rookie retailer by the name of Ian White and gave him the job of moving their mariners about. Some 30-plus years later, White is now chief executive officer of CTI, one of the fastest- growing TMCs in the business.
THINKING ALIKE CTI is the result of a meeting of minds. White, the former boss of what was then TD Travel, says: “It came about through my relationship with Chris Needham, who was the managing director of [hotel booking agency] Hotelscene. His career had paralleled mine in many ways, and
staffers’ loyalty – even with the takeover of Hotelscene, average length of experi- ence is 19 years, a timespan matched by only one other top 50 TMC. “I’ve never really been a fan of the idea that if someone excels at their job, you promote them out of their comfort zone,” says White. “We reward and remunerate our staff well, but I firmly believe that if they enjoy what they’re doing – and they’re doing it well – there is nothing to be gained from taking them away from that, sticking them in an office and giving them a managerial title.” It’s that belief in his employees’ abilities that underpins CTI’s new technology plat- form, CTI Sherpa. Flagged as “the world’s first knowledge-based corporate travel
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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