The TravelMole Interview: Mark O’Brien, Rosenbluth International

Tuesday, 14 May, 2002 0

Rosenbluth International has won more new business in the UK in the first quarter of this year than in the whole of 2001 according to the company’s UK director Mark O’Brien (left).

Mr O’Brien said the new account wins – which include medical firm Unipath and marine exploration company Tidewater – were the result of a concerted sales and marketing drive at a time when many travel management firms had chosen to cut costs due to the downturn in business caused by September 11 and the economic slowdown.

However he conceded that the business travel downturn had never-the-less had a dramatic impact on the company. While business is starting to recover, last month’s figures were still around 22% down on the same period last year.

The travel management firm divides its clients into customer segments such as finance and banking, aerospace and defence and gas and oil. This has allowed it to analyse the impact of the economic downturn on specific sectors and also give an idea about their future travel spends.

Mr O’Brien said that he expects overall figures to remain around 20-25% down with a slight recovery in Q3 of this year, followed by a more noticeable improvement in the fourth quarter.

He also praised the efforts of Rosenbluth’s UK staff in the immediate aftermath of September 11. While Rosenbluth in the US implemented a mandatory 10% pay cut, this was voluntary in other regions. In total 85% of the company’s UK staff agreed to a three month reduction in their salary levels.

Mr O’Brien said one of Rosenbluth’s priorities was to consolidate more accounts in Europe and has been actively targeting suitable clients for the past four months. Mr O’Brien said: “There is a huge gap in our industry in terms of the numbers of travel management companies servicing accounts on a pan-European basis.” He added that he believed Rosenbluth was at an advantage in this area because it has wholly owned operations throughout Europe, rather than joint ventures.

He added that he believes that the UK travel industry needs a more effective lobbying body. See: Plans for new travel industry lobbying force.

See previous stories:
14 May 2002: Rosenbluth seeks to reduce its own travel spend
22 Mar 2002: Zero commission hits agents in US
06 Feb 2002: Rosenbluth and BTI address post September 11 security fears
16 Oct 2001: Rosenbluth implements 10% pay cuts

See previous TravelMole interviews:

07-May-2002: Alicia Gardner, Sabre
29-Apr-2002: Carolyn Ezzell, Delta Air Lines
23-Apr-2002: John Davis, Pegasus Solutions
15-Apr-2002: Gregory Hunt, ABTA Arbitration Scheme
09-Apr-2002: Stuart Winter, Atinera
03-Apr-2002: Roberto Da Re, Dolphin Dynamics
26-Mar-2002: Arnaud Debuchy, Amadeus
19-Mar-2002: Helen Baker, Lastminute.com
12-Mar-2002: Pat Minogue, Galileo
07-Mar-2002: Jon Hart, MyTravel
28-Feb-2002: Lawrence Hunt, Rapid Travel Solutions