Direct Travel and ATPI have been working together very closely for some time, so what difference will this acquisition actually make?

Christal
The only way that I can think about even articulating it is just to say, what does this mean for our customers – not just our joint customers, but future customers? This is not just the opportunity with Avenir and so forth, but it has to do with how we show up for our customers. And so as brilliant and as wonderful as the relationship has been, there’s only so far you can go when you are two separate organisations, with two separate sales teams and contracts and implementation and support.

And when I think about the thing that matters most, outside of our employees, it’s what is the experience like for the customer. As you say, this is a long standing partnership–  and it’s a great relationship – but there’s only so much you can do being two separate organisations.

The other thing I would say is one of the things that I see going on a lot right now is there’s a lot of change going on in the industry. There’s a lot of chaos. And while I think change is good and there’s a lot of healthy evolution, this will create stability. Our customers will wake up today and they don’t have to worry about what does it mean for them. It’s just business as usual and we will continue to make it better.

Ian
Yes, for me this is just the natural conclusion of what we started when we formed a strategic relationship back in 2017 because the two businesses are so complementary and have worked so well together over the past eight years. This this the final stage in the businesses coming together in a way which ends up being seamless.

Was this outcome what you had in mind back in 2017? Was it always the end goal?

Ian
I think that the first year was very much around seeing how the two of us could work together as strong network partners and then around 2018-2019 is when we first felt that actually putting the two businesses together into one group was the conclusion that we wanted. With a lot of acquisitions, two businesses talk and one buys the other and then they work out what they’re going to do with each other. This is very much the other way around.

Christal
Yes, it’s like we’ve been living next door to each other and now we’re moving in together.

So, obviously last year Steve Singh came along and bought Direct Travel. What impact did that have on the plans?

Ian
Well, from the point of view of putting the two businesses together, you then had somebody new coming in who had to buy into that vision. Of course, there’s a lot of money at stake so it’s not something you sort of wander in to, spend two weeks getting to know and then go OK, let’s go and do this. There an awful lot more to it than that.

In the industry this deal has been talked about for a while. Do you think your customers also knew it was coming? Were any surprised?

Ian
I’ve yet to find anyone, anywhere that’s surprised, to be honest! So no, I don’t think from either side there was any surprise. The reaction was more like “yes, we knew this, we wondered when this was going to happen” as opposed to “oh my God, have you?” I guess when you’ve got a joint brand like Direct ATPI it’s kind of telegraphing where you’re going.

Speaking of the brand, you say the ATPI brand will remain intact for now but what about longer term? 

Christal
It’s not part of the plan. ATPI has such a strong brand reputation and you know the thing that’s really important to me is that we work on the things that actually matter. Things could change down the road, but for right now I don’t see any reason to be making massive changes. I think there are other things for us to focus on, like how we show up for our customers and how to make it seamless. Those are the things to me that have substance and that matter.

You said earlier there will be things that you can do now that you weren’t able to do before from a client point of view. Can you give me some examples?

Christal
Yes, so there are the really basic use cases and simple things like, you know, when you think about what it looks like to engage in a contract with us going forward in the future. One of the things that we’ll start working on is single points of entry in contact. And that’ll show up through sales engagement, through the contracting legal process and through implementation enablement. These things will take time. It’s not going to happen overnight, but they are the things you start to prioritise.

We will try to take the signals from our clients to say what are the things that would be most meaningful to them so we can start to rank and prioritise. And then there are synergies internally of how we work together, things we can leverage. For example, we’re both working on AI projects and it will be wonderful to bring those groups together.

And what about your supplier partnerships?

Christal
So, we do cover different geographies and have some different supplier relationships but I do think coming together gives us an opportunity to go back and look at those in a collective fashion. It’s a great opportunity for us to bring those teams together and engage with those suppliers.

You talked about the current chaos in the industry, and I’m guessing you’re referring in some way to the American Express GBT/CWT integration. Do you see opportunities for you to be the place of calm?

Christal
What I hope would resonate would be to really understand what do people need right now? What are they missing? I’ll use AI as an example. A lot of people are out there talking about AI, saying we have AI solutions and there are plenty of varieties of things that are that are available.

I think if I take a big step back – as a travel manager or someone in procurement – and I say OK, what does that mean to me? How does that help me? What are the problems I’m trying to solve? I am looking at how I put my priorities on behalf of both companies directly in line with the things that are most valuable to them, creating stability is key. And I don’t mean stability for the lack of innovation or lack of change, I mean making sure that it’s aligned with outcomes that are important to our customers, making sure that we do the best job we can supporting them.

I have no desire to change for the sake of change. There’s a lot of that going on right now, so there’s nothing that’s going to change unless it directly supports an outcome we’re trying to drive for our customers or for to support our customers. And so, I think by default we will become that stable force.

And I think unlike any other acquisition that I’ve ever been part of, we are waking up the next day and we already know all the people. All we can do is get tighter and better from here, and I really hope that that gives comfort to not only our current customers but future customers as well.

How is the European roll-out of Avenir going?  

Ian
There’s been a lot of progress over the last six to nine months and we are currently on track to be rolling out the first client outside of the US probably by the end of the year. And then we would look for 2026 to be a bit of a breakthrough year for Avenir in Europe.

Now, rather than Avenir being a Direct Travel product that we, as a partner, are rolling out on their behalf, it becomes part of our own DNA as well. And I think that, for me, this is one of the main upsides of the acquisition. It will give the ATPI teams more of a feeling of ownership.

Are you both personally relieved that the deal has now been done and you won’t need to devote so much time and energy to it?

Christal
Actually, Bev, this is where the work starts! You don’t miss an opportunity like this, and every minute and every day counts. In any other situation you’d have to spend a long period of time figuring out who people are, what we can do, where we come together, but we can just hit ‘go’ on day one. We can get to work straight away. It’s amazing.

Ian
Yes, and for ATPI the uncertainty is over. When you’re in this process for the length of time we were, you’re inevitably treading water and it gets to the point where you want the certainty to drive things forward. We’re here now. It’s a very, very positive step.

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