Reed & Mackay CEO Fred Stratford on travel recovery and expansion

Fred Stratford is group CEO of travel management company Reed & Mackay

Fred Stratford, CEO of UK-based travel management company Reed & Mackay, spoke to BTN Europe's editor-in-chief Andy Hoskins about the recovery of business travel and the organisation's imminent expansion plans. Edited excerpts follow.

BTN Europe: We’re hearing from quite a few TMCs that revenue is now back to pre-Covid levels but bookings are still down, indicating rising average trip costs. What’s the state of play at Reed & Mackay?

Fred Stratford: Prices in the hotel and air space are definitely running high. That helps with the turnover piece but in terms of bookings, yes, they’re lagging a little. We’re pretty close to pre-Covid levels on both [revenue and bookings], but revenue more specifically. I think that’s across the whole industry and we’re in line with that trend. We’ve got some clients who are trading 150 per cent-plus of pre-Covid levels. They're out there wanting to win business and they see in-person meetings as really critical. On the other hand, there's a few clients – and probably the larger clients on the whole – who are a little bit more cautious. What I would say is that we are now seeing quite a few of our professional services clients starting to reinvest in their global secondment programmes.

BTN Europe: We heard a lot about staff shortages this summer. What have you done to navigate those challenges and to get set for these peak autumn months?

Fred Stratford: We set out on a recruitment drive ahead of our competition and that's put us in a good place. We've been able to train our staff to really high levels. We brought in a lot of really talented people – we had the first bite at the cherry – and not just agents… people in the product area in our engineering team, our R&D team, comms, client success. We've really been pretty aggressive because for us the service piece is super important.

BTN Europe: With your high-touch service model, it must take longer to get people up to speed, does it?

Fred Stratford: Yes, it takes longer because we want people who have that sort of client focus. It's not about numbers. It's not ‘how quickly can I get through the bookings?’, or ‘how quickly can I get that client off the telephone?’. It's about making sure that client doesn't need anything else… that all of their requirements have been taken care of, and even the things they don't even know that they wanted. We're looking to wow. That’s something where you can't just flick a switch and it happens – it takes time. But we invested heavily ahead of the curve. It was always a gamble on how quickly things would come back, but I'm pleased we did it when we did because we're in a good place now. 

BTN Europe: Are staffing levels where they need to be now? How do they compare with pre-Covid?

Fred Stratford: We're pretty close. We are resourced ahead of where we believe we're going to be but I think we will still recruit a few more. We're in a place where we've given ourselves a cushion. We've got staff who are in the training process as well, but we're at a level where we're content and we see more growth. I think we would've really struggled had we not started [recruiting] when we did.

BTN Europe: What’s the strategy for Reed & Mackay right now – are you moving from the recovery phase back into expansion?

Fred Stratford: We're always in expansion mode – apart from two years of Covid where we got blitzed! Our ambition is to take market share and we are definitely in expansion mode. The global piece is really important to us right now. We’re seeing a lot of mid-tier firms in three, five, seven markets, that really want the global sort of benefits but aren't necessarily global businesses.

BTN Europe: Are there any specific developments you can talk about?

Fred Stratford: We're going to be opening up another office in the Middle East. We are seeing an amazing amount of inbound business coming our way. It's an organic play and, I don't want this to sound cocky, but it's because we've made such a good play in that marketplace. We're being asked 'can you be in this marketplace as well?'. And then 'if you can, we've got a list of clients lining up to join us, but we have to be operational in that market'. We'll be announcing that towards the end of September.

BTN Europe: How about acquisitions of companies in the mould of Reed & Mackay, as opposed to parent company TripActions – is there anything in the pipeline?

Fred Stratford: The simple answer is yes. I can't say too much but in terms of the direction, we just made a pretty significant announcement with personnel. I've broadened Julie [Oliver]'s remit to cover off mainland Europe and as part of that role… it means that we're going to be a lot more serious in Europe. That will include some new markets, and yes, that will include some M&As under the Reed & Mackay banner. It's not too far off - this side of Christmas or maybe earlier than that. The message here is that we see a lot more businesses wanting that service across several markets within Europe. We're seeing a big opportunity there. There's a lot of negative stuff around Brexit and all sorts of other challenges and everyone's sort of sitting back, waiting to see where it lands. There's an opportunity there to really be more aggressive in that marketplace and that's one of our key goals coming up over the next couple of quarters.

BTN Europe: What will that do for Reed & Mackay in terms of size and scope?

Fred Stratford: It'll give us a serious footprint in some new markets but we're not buying just for size. We're definitely seeing the meetings and events space really hot up as clients are doing more hybrid activity and bringing their remote workers together. That's going to be another key driver of ours in Europe, but also more widely.

BTN Europe: Reed & Mackay was acquired by TripActions nearly 18 months ago. How's that bedding down and what are the biggest touchpoints between the two businesses? You're fulfilling TripActions' VIP service, for example?

Fred Stratford: Yes, we're looking after their VIP side of things in the US and in the UK and that's going to be taken global. We've already kicked off a project in Australia to do that and we've got some of their clients already coming across, and there are other markets to follow. We're also servicing the meetings and events space for TripActions clients. That's something else that we're going to make a big play of. We're already moving forwards on that in the US and UK. That's where that higher service offering is required. But the Reed & Mackay and the TripActions teams are running separately and the tech stacks are running separately. It's all very clearly differentiated and it's a different offering.

BTN Europe: What's your outlook for the next 12 months given the economic and geopolitical challenges we're seeing?

Fred Stratford: There's a real focus on the value of travel and a lot of businesses have already looked at that as part of their thinking. Those business that are back to 150 per cent [of pre-Covid travel activity]... they've done the value equation and have said 'if we don't travel we're not going to meet our growth targets'. Others have probably taken a slightly different view and want to grow more steadily. 

I think perhaps the biggest challenge right now is the travel manager's role. I think it's tough for them. Travel was something that was treated like many other commodities but actually it's a service and there's a lot more to it now. They've got to be into the wellbeing piece, they've got to be into the sustainability piece, they've got to be into the security piece.Their skillset is broadening and it can be a lonely place for them. Everyone expects them to have all the answers but they're juggling so much.