carlson wagonlit travel layoffs

StarTribune

Another vestige of carlson travel empire sold, this one to amex spinoff for $570m.

Minneapolis-based CWT, a business travel and meeting management firm that was part of a prominent Minnesota family's business legacy, will sell to rival American Express Global Business Travel for $570 million, the companies announced Monday.

The merger, which should close in the latter half of this year, blends two of the biggest corporate travel entities. CWT, formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel, started in its current form in the mid-1990s and touts 4,000 customers with a projected revenue of approximately $850 million this year. American Express spun off its global business travel (GBT) sector as a joint venture with an investor group in 2014, and GBT has rapidly grown through various mergers and acquisitions since.

CWT was not reachable for comment, including on if its global headquarters will remain in the state, if this will affect any jobs or if the CWT name will survive.

American Express said the deal means CWT customers will have access to its proprietary software and services.

"Joining forces with Amex GBT helps accelerate our vision of a tech-enabled future for business travel, where people and technology combine to deliver an exceptional customer experience," said Patrick Andersen, CEO of CWT, in a statement. "We are highly confident in the value creation of the combined company."

The privately held CWT — which investment funds like Redwood Capital Management, Monarch Alternative Capital and others own — will now be part of the public GBT, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. That came at a time when corporate travel was still in a precarious state after grinding to a halt in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Business travel still hasn't fully recovered to 2019 levels in terms of volume or spending, but that milestone could hit as soon as by the end of this year. So Jose Ferreira, owner of Coon Rapids-based Riverdale Travel, said this deal is timed for growth.

"For corporate travelers, I would say that service levels are going to improve," Ferreira said. "Both of these companies are still recovering from the pandemic."

Curt Carlson, namesake of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, started his family's business empire during the Great Depression, eventually venturing into the travel industry about 30 years later.

In 2021, the family gave up its ownership stake in Carlson Travel Inc. and its many related companies, including CWT, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the business into bankruptcy. The family has also offloaded some of its large portfolio of hotels, including selling the Radisson Hotel Group Americas for $675 million to Choice Hotels International in 2022.

Burl Gilyard is the Star Tribune's medtech reporter.

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6 WARN Layoff Notices for Carlson Wagonlit Travel from Oct 2001 to Jul 2020

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Carlson Family Gives Up Control of Namesake Agency CWT in Refinancing Deal

Matthew Parsons , Skift

September 15th, 2021 at 11:00 AM EDT

A new chapter that will help the agency focus on the future, but will an opaque ownership structure hinder its recovery plans?

Matthew Parsons

Corporate travel agency CWT hopes to draw a line under a tumultuous 18 months with a major financial restructuring, which will see the family-owned Carlson group switch from majority to minority stakeholder.

CWT, which up until 2019 was known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel , has entered into an agreement with its equity owners, as well as firms that represent more than 90 percent of the company’s outstanding debt, to recapitalize the business.

Terms of the agreement, entered into with financial stakeholder Barings , among others, include adding $350 million of new equity capital into the business, and eliminating almost $900 million of debt by replacing its existing $1.5 billion in debt with a new first lien debt of $625 million and an undrawn revolving credit facility. First lien debt holders are paid back before all other debt holders in the event of a default.

As a result of these manoeuvrings, the Carlson holdings ownership will be diluted, according to CWT CEO Michelle McKinney Frymire, who replaced Kurt Ekert in May .

The refinancing, which is expected to complete by the end of the year, doesn’t involve any new parties coming to the table — which may come as a surprise after previous refinancing and other speculation. One industry source told Skift in September last year that CWT would make an attractive acquisition target . “I see them being a net loser unfortunately, and there are others out there who might take an opportunistic approach and make a consolidation play,” they said at the time.

Rumors also circulated that private equity firm Certares, which this week invested $354 million in an aerospace services firm , was looking at the company.

“All of the parties involved are existing investors, and they’re all really well regarded institutional investment managers,” said McKinney Frymire. “They understand the business, and have been incredibly supportive of the company and our strategy … CWT will remain an independent standalone company, we will have a number of debt holders who will become equity holders, many of whom already have some small portion of equity.”

McKinney Frymire also doesn’t envisage job cuts in the future. “Optimizing the operational footprint of the company, flattening the organization, we’ve done a lot of that work already,” she said.

CWT has been radically slimming down over the past few of years. In 2019 it axed several country director roles, and later transferred other regions into cross-functional market management teams.

McKinney Frymire said there were currently 500 positions the company was looking to fill around the world.

Meanwhile, the restructure leaves CWT with a generous $400 million of available liquidity on the balance sheet. It claimed this is the largest amount among its peers, but the money won’t be directed towards acquisitions, which has been a major trend during the pandemic.

“We’re focused on our people and technology,” McKinney Frymire said. “That’s not to say we wouldn’t take advantage if we thought there was an opportunity that made sense. But it’s not an intentional focal point.”

Beyond the Pandemic

Now the calculations have been made, McKinney Frymire said she wants to put the business in a position to take advantage of the recovery in business travel. She’s been out talking to her biggest customers, where the news was “universally and very positively received.”

Yet it marks a significantly different chapter with its former namesake taking a back seat. Carlson was founded in 1938 in the U.S. state of Minnesota by Curt Carlson, with Carlson Wagonlit Travel formed in 1994 following its partnership with France’s Wagonlit Travel, which was owned by Accor. Accor sold its share in the company in 2006.

But CWT is keen to point out that its rebrand in 2019 meant the company was no longer called Carlson Wagonlit Travel, despite the initials. Now, Carlson will retain some stake, but the exact percentage is still to be determined.

“Having over 90 percent of the debt holders in this agreement is really remarkable, and demonstrates the support our financial stakeholders have for the business,” McKinney Frymire added.

That show of support for the ailing travel agency also demonstrates a certain level of faith in the corporate travel sector’s potential to rebound. So much so, they’re literally banking on it.

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Tags: carlson wagonlit travel , certares , cwt , travel management

Photo credit: CWT is headquartered in Minneapolis in the U.S. Gregory Hayes / Unsplash

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Amex GBT Agrees to Acquire Carlson Wagonlit Travel for $570 Million

Photo: Amex GBT

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is acquiring corporate travel agency Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), for $570 million, marking a new chapter for one of the industry’s longtime corporate giants.

The deal is expected to close sometime in the second half of 2024. The transaction will be funded by a combination of stock and cash.

CWT, which says it serves 4,000 global customers, has been undergoing major changes in recent years, including taking on new equity owners in 2021. As recently as November, CWT underwent some balance sheet recapitalization aimed at deleveraging its balance sheet and strengthening its financial position. At that time, CWT said it had a “strong financial foundation and capital structure.”

In Monday’s announcement, CWT said that moving under Amex GBT will help its long-term vision and that it was “confident” in the future of the company.

“Joining forces with Amex GBT helps accelerate our vision of a tech-enabled future for business travel, where people and technology combine to deliver an exceptional customer experience. We are highly confident in the value creation of the combined company,” CWT CEO Patrick Andersen said.

It also said that, when the deal closes, its clients would have access to Amex GBT’s proprietary software, including programs like Neo1, Neo, and Egencia, and Amex GBT’s professional services.

TMR reached out to CWT to ask about the evolution of the CWT brand when the company does move under Amex GBT, and whether or not the CWT will remain. A spokesperson told TMR that "it’s very early in the process to discuss CWT as a brand. We are all proud of the name we have built in the marketplace and our ancestry. Today, we remain CWT."

Amex GBT’s CEO Paul Abbot said on Monday that bringing CWT under the Amex banner will “create more choice for customers, more opportunities for people, and more value for shareholders.”

CWT traces its roots back to 1872 when a Belgian innovator Georges Nagelmackers, who went on to create the Orient Express, founded Wagons-Lits, which means "sleeping cars."

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Carlson to acquire full ownership of Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Carlson announces it will take full ownership of Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

MINNEAPOLIS and ANSTERDAM – Carlson , a global hospitality and travel company, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from J PMorgan Chase & Co. , the 45 percent equity interest JPMC indirectly holds in Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT). As a result of this acquisition, Carlson will own 100 percent of CWT. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in July 2014, subject to customary closing conditions.

“We are pleased with the momentum, growth and results realized by the management team at CWT. This acquisition, along with our ongoing investment in Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and its family of brands, helps solidify our long term direction for the company,” said Carlson President and CEO Trudy Rautio . “We have benefitted from a long relationship with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and will continue to work with them in the future.”

CWT is a global leader specializing in business travel and meetings management. CWT works with clients to respond to the complexities and challenges of business travel management while addressing the needs and expectations of travelers. CWT delivers efficient and innovative solutions to optimize travel and meetings and events management by leveraging its global reach with the best people and superior service and technology.

CWT employs nearly 19,000 people worldwide spanning more than 150 countries and territories. CWT’s clients include one-third of the Fortune Global 100 companies. In addition, it has a diverse client portfolio ranging from small and mid-sized companies, to government institutions and non-governmental organizations. In 2013, CWT generated traffic of $26.9 billion.

Tatiana Rokou

Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.

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Carlson wagonlit travel.

With more than 3,000 offices in more than 140 countries, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) is the second-largest travel agency in the world. Although the combined name is relatively new, the company's roots go back to the oldest travel businesses in Europe and America. Wagonlit Travel's founder was the creator of the legendary Orient Express, while the Carlson Travel Network was based on Ask Mr. Foster Travel, one of the first travel agencies in the United States. Carlson also operates a separate, wholly-owned leisure and franchised travel agency network in North America under the Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates name. In addition, Accor manages separate CWT Leisure operations in Europe.

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et du Tourisme was founded in 1872 by Georges Nagelmakers, a Belgian, to market rides on railway sleeper cars (wagons-lits) of his own design. This culminated in the richly outfitted carriages of the legendary Orient Express, officially inaugurated in 1883. A network of Wagons-Lits travel agencies appeared in Europe in 1928.

Carlson Wagonlit's origins in the United States date back to the country's first travel agency. Ask Mr. Foster Travel began with a souvenir shop Ward Grenelle Foster opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1888. As a child in New York, Foster had been hospitalized for tuberculosis. While confined, he developed a passion for travel literature. He became sought after for travel advice, leading to a career as the father of the travel agency in the United States.

Foster started by publishing travel guides. During the 1920s, his travel agency grew to 70 offices in the United States. This era saw the professionalization of the business with the appearance of Foster Girls, who were dedicated to the travel business full time. Men did not begin working as travel agents in the United States until the 1940s.

Paxton Mendelssohn of Detroit bought Ask Mr. Foster in 1937. Within a few years, the outbreak of World War II curtailed leisure travel. After the war, demand was great--so great that the railroads did not need to advertise with Ask Mr. Foster, so the agency began to switch to a commission-based system.

Changing Hands in the 1970s

Peter Ueberroth, future Major League Baseball commissioner, acquired Ask Mr. Foster through his Los Angeles travel company, First Travel Corp., in 1972. Ueberroth paid $1 million for the agency, which had 29 branch offices. He placed his brother, John Ueberroth, in charge of its expansion.

In 1979, Ask Mr. Foster was sold to the Carlson Companies, Inc., which Curt Carlson had built up from a small trading stamp company to one of the biggest privately held firms in the United States. Ask Mr. Foster then had more than 100 branches and more than $100 million in sales a year.

Carlson entered the travel market just as deregulation of the airline industry was getting underway. With their newfound freedom, airlines introduced thousands of airfares using complex formulas to make the most profit from every flight. Corporations with large travel accounts turned to agencies like Ask Mr. Foster Travel to find the best deals and to provide reporting of travel expenses.

John Ueberroth remained with Ask Mr. Foster after it was acquired by Carlson and continued to direct its expansion. He eventually became president of Carlson Travel, which grew by acquisition through the first half of the 1980s, picking up Canada's P. Lawson Travel and leisure travel agencies Cartan Tours and First Tours. Carlson acquired a 70 percent holding in P. Lawson in 1983 and had acquired the remainder by 1992.

Mixing Corporate and Leisure Travel in the 1980s

By the mid-1980s, Carlson Travel Group had become one of the largest travel companies in the world by focusing on corporate sales. It had 600 offices and accounted for nearly half of Carlson Companies' 1986 revenues of $3.5 billion. The group's only near rival was American Express Travel Management Services. The company owned 18 agencies inside Neiman-Marcus department stores (Neiman-Marcus Travel Service) in addition to its Ask Mr. Foster units.

Company head John Ueberroth was trying to replicate this success on the leisure side of the market. CTN began an associates program from U.S. agencies in 1984. The number of participating agencies exceeded 600 in 1990. Ask Mr. Foster acquired Don Travel Service Inc. in 1986. This regional agency based in New York had annual sales of about $200 million.

Northwest and TWA's PARS computer reservations system was installed in 80 Ask Mr. Foster offices in early 1988. Carlson acquired Gelco Travel Management Service Inc., a unit of GE Capital, in the same year. Gelco, a $250 million travel company with 660 employees, was folded into Ask Mr. Foster.

Going Global in the 1990s

In 1990, Carlson Travel acquired a 76 percent interest in the A.T. Mays travel agency chain, the fourth-largest in the United Kingdom. A.T. Mays had more than 300 offices, more than 2,400 employees, and annual revenues of $576 million. It was eventually renamed Carlson Worldchoice. Mays was Carlson's first major overseas acquisition. A wave of consolidation had begun among travel agencies in the United States and United Kingdom.

The Ask Mr. Foster name was retired in April 1990, replaced by that of Carlson Travel Network. The new name conveyed both the connection to the Carlson-owned restaurants and hotels as well as the existence of a global distribution network. Also in 1990, operations at the company were restructured into commercial and retail sides, while computing and accounting operations were centralized at its Minneapolis headquarters. Carlson had acquired a company specializing in travel management software, CompuCheck Corp. Carlson Travel Network's system-wide revenues rose 42 percent to $5.1 billion in 1990.

Travis Tanner was named president of Carlson Travel Group, which included the Carlson Travel Network, in January 1993. He was returning to the unit after four years as head of Walt Disney Travel Co. Carlson Travel Network soon underwent a restructuring aimed at delegating more decision-making to local and regional offices. The unit had about 6,000 employees at the time.

The next year, in March 1994, Carlson Travel announced the merger of its business travel operations with those of Paris-based Wagonlit Travel (Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits et du Tourisme), a unit of the Accor Group SA, a French tourism and business service conglomerate that also owned Novotel, Sofitel, and Motel 6 hotels and car rental agencies. Accor was the largest travel and hospitality company operating outside the United States.

A global travel enterprise, named Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), was formed with annual revenues of $10.8 billion. This was large enough to re-take the industry lead from American Express Travel Related Services (TRS), which till then had been the largest travel company in the world with 1993 sales of $8 billion. Carlson's independent foreign franchises were not included in the deal. Carlson Wagonlit had 4,000 offices in 125 countries; 2,300 of these came from Carlson Travel. The combined operations booked 24 million airline and train tickets a year, plus seven million hotel stays and six million days of car rentals.

The merger made Carlson Wagonlit competitive for large multinational businesses, such as GE, that were beginning to switch to single vendors for their travel needs. The merger created new possibilities for monitoring global spending trends for these clients. The process of integrating Wagonlit Travel's information systems with Carlson Travel's was a five-year endeavor.

A London-based joint venture, Carlson Wagonlit Development Co., was created to develop markets in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Carlson and Accor agreed to each invest $45 million in the joint venture over three years.

Carlson Wagonlit soon unveiled a branded Visa credit card for 85,000 of its accounts, intensifying its competition with American Express (AmEx). In September 1994, AmEx leapfrogged Carlson Wagonlit in size by acquiring Thomas Cook Ltd.'s North American operations. Carlson Travel president described the consolidation trend in Business Week: "In 1985, you had to be national. In 1995, you have to be global."

CWT acquired Sweden's third-largest travel agency group, Resecenter, in October 1996. Resecenter had 1995 revenues of $90 million and 110 employees, compared to $13.3 billion for CWT, which had more than 20,000 employees.

Expanding Online and in the UK in late 1990s

CWT introduced enQuest, its Internet-based travel agency in September 1997. Around the same time, it rolled out Mercavia, an extranet for providing travel agents with information that included video clips.

CWT's online debut lagged behind the Travelocity and American Express Travel on the Web by more than a year. The first online travel agency had been rolled out in 1995, and the field was already crowded, including offerings from Microsoft Corp. and other technology-based companies. However, CWT executives believed their bricks-and-mortar agencies offered unparalleled customer service opportunities.

CWT continued to expand in Britain. It acquired Inspirations, a packager of summer holidays, for £42 million. In October 1998, CWT merged the British package holiday interests of Thomas Cook with its own UK operations. This tied it for third place among UK tour operators. The merger also included Cook's travel businesses in Canada, Australia, and India, financial services operations, as well as Carlson's Caledonian and Peach Airways charter airlines and the tour operator Inspirations. Thomas Cook, which was owned by Westdeutsche Landesbank, had annual sales of more than £23 billion. It had been founded in 1841.

Jon Madonna, a former executive with the Travelers Group and KPMG Peat Marwick, replaced Travis Tanner as CWT CEO in late 1998. Tanner had left to join the Atlanta-based leisure start-up Luxury Travel Co. CWT was reorganizing around customers' needs, rather than geographical divisions.

Herve Gourio, president of Wagonlit Travel at the time of the merger with Carlson, returned to lead CWT after the departure of Madonna in October 2000.

Scaling Back After 2000

CWT cut several hundred positions in early 2001 due to a softening economy. CWT employed 15,000 people around the world, including 6,000 in North America. About 200 telephone reservationists were let go. Airlines were also suffering from a downturn in the travel business even before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and were reducing commissions to travel agencies by as much as 60 percent. Overall revenues fell 8.3 percent in 2001, to $11 billion, mostly due to a slump in the U.S. market, which was down 20 percent.

In early 2003, Carlson Wagonlit announced a joint venture with China Air Service, the leading corporate travel management company in the People's Republic. A joint venture with the Japan Travel Bureau had been formed in 2001.

Principal Competitors: American Express Company; Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd.; Rosenbluth International; TUI AG; WorldTravel BTI.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories , Vol. 55. St. James Press, 2003.

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Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow. Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?