Clyde Travel Management

The Glasgow-based agency has grown its operations after branching out to other areas of the corporate market including the offshore oil and gas sector as well as more mainstream business travel.

Since the early 2000s, Clyde Travel Management has expanded from a team of 11 to its current size of more than 80 staff through a mixture of acquisitions and organic expansion.

The company now has four offices around Scotland including Glasgow, Aberdeen, Clydebank and Inverness, including a high street leisure agency Alba Travel, which also arranges holidays for its corporate clients.

One of Clyde’s most high-profile clients is the Glasgow Warriors rugby union team, which includes several Scottish internationals, who feature in the TMC’s advertising.

Clyde prides itself on offering an “ethos of transparency with an upfront fee structure” for its clients. The TMC also ensures that it gives customers access to all possible travel options rather than using preferred suppliers.

The agency also highlights its “high touch” personal service, which earns Clyde consistently high markets in customer surveys.

This is not to say that Clyde does not focus on technology, and it offers self-booking tools for clients but “it’s not something we push”.

Clyde also has its own team of developers who can help clients to solve their travel technology needs by creating customised tools for them.

The TMC has created branded technology tools such as its myCLYDE booking request and authoristaion system, which allows clients to see all the travel bookings of individual employees. This system is soon to be integrated with its GDS to automate the processing of this information.

For its own staff, the ourCLYDE inhouse intranet system allows consultants quick access to information on clients and processes.

It’s also working on a new product that will streamline the process of linking customer data with flight bookings.

• clydetravel.com