JTI (Japan Tobacco International) has selected FCM to manage its corporate travel programme which, pre-Covid, amounted to $160 million in annual spend.
The company, which operates in more than 80 markets globally, had previously worked with 16 individual agencies to manage its business travel needs.
JTI conducted a competitive – and entirely virtual – RFP process to identify a single, global TMC under which to consolidate its travel programme and drive standardisation, savings and compliance.
“Cultural fit is key; we wanted a TMC who understood JTI and its intricacies,” said Mike Potter, travel services director at JTI. “It’s a company that's changing. We're moving to a better way of doing business and we really wanted people to understand that, and ‘local glocal’ is a phrase that's used a lot internally.”
FCM says it has gone live with JTI in 52 countries in under three months.
The TMC recently reported the number of corporate travellers across its client portfolio in EMEA almost doubled in the second quarter of the year, with the majority of the uplift attributed to intra-European growth.