BCD Travel acquired Milwaukee-based travel management company Adelman Travel Group, a member of the BCD Travel Affiliates program. Terms were not disclosed.

BCD Travel in 2015 acquired World Travel Service and in 2017 raised its position in Acendas Travel. Last month it bought a majority stake in Japan-based partner Hitachi Travel Bureau. That followed investments in operations in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Colombia, Japan, the Nordics and Poland.

“Our financial strength affords us the opportunity to grow our company with moves like this one that benefit our clients, employees, partners and affiliates,” according to a statement about Adelman and attributed to BCD Travel Americas president Craig Bailey.

Craig Bailey, BCD Travel Americas president

Privately held Adelman has 300 employees and annual sales of $675 million, according to BCD. It serves clients in sectors including financial services, technology, manufacturing and retail. Adelman became a BCD Travel affiliate in 2017 after leaving the Radius network.

Run by CEO Andy McGraw, Adelman will maintain its brand as a business unit of BCD Travel.

One thing to watch is how Adelman’s technology partnerships evolve. For example, the TMC offers to clients the Claire chatbot from 30SecondsToFly. As part of a recent arrangement with FCM, 30SecondsToFly for two years can’t work with other global TMCs such as BCD Travel.

Adelman has pre-existing relationships with flight delay prediction service Lumo, reaccomodation service Freebird and non-employee travel specialist Pana. All three of those third parties also participate in BCD Travel’s SolutionSource marketplace.

Both Adelman and BCD Travel are SAP Concur partners. Concur considers Adelman a “preferred” partner.

Adelman supports Enterprise’s small business program and startup corporate travel service provider NexTravel. It’s been active with virtual payment.

Part of privately held BCD Group, BCD Travel employs 13,800 people across 109 countries. It claimed 2018 sales of $27.1 billion. CWT claimed 2018 transaction volume of $25 billion. According to Travel Weekly, American Express Global Business Travel’s 2018 sales totaled $33.7 billion.


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