Travel firm rides on niche corporate market for growth

From a small enterprise with just five staff housed in Westlands, Silverbird Travel Plus has grown over the last 16 years to make the list of Top 100 companies for the last four years. In 2013, the company took position 72 among Kenya’s best mid-sized companies, a feat that managing director Caroline Malinda said has not been easy to achieve.

Her company’s continued participation in the Top 100 competition has been a way for her to benchmark its growth against others of a similar size, she noted.

“Competition has always been something I enjoy because it gives you a platform to check your internal processes to see if they meet set standards. In 2010, I saw the competition being advertised and I thought to myself, why not participate? After all, Silverbird meets all the compliance required. Since then, we have continued to participate annually,” she said.

Her immense passion for travel, she said, would not let her delve into another career even if she were to start all over again. “I used to work in another travel agency as a partner. We started the firm in 1990 but by 1998 I wanted my own company so I sold my shares to my partner’s friend and soon after, I started my company.”

Ms Malinda said that unlike most start-ups, she did not have the challenge of getting customers because she moved with some of her clients. Her focus as she started the travel management company was to avoid mistakes she had seen her former partnership make.

Automate processes

“At that time, technology was not advanced and we used to do pretty much everything ourselves, including physically issuing tickets and faxing them to the airline. But I was lucky because when I started out, that was when the Internet and email were coming in. I was able to learn about them earlier than many people because I wanted to automate most processes,” she said.

Initially, the company would sell tickets to all and sundry but with time, she decided to focus on corporate travel management so she could have clients all year round.

Outsourcing services

The market at the time was also in her favour as many companies were restructuring and getting rid of their in-house travel agents. Big corporates had already begun outsourcing services to professional travel management companies.

“It is a very competitive industry because companies do not just pick you; they tender and ask for proposals. Through competitive bidding, you can get contracts lasting one to three years depending on the company’s size,” she said.

The challenges, she said, come in maintaining contracts as the company has to strive to meet clients’ needs and deliver on promises, which requires constant training of staff to keep abreast with the global travel industry.

As part of placing the company on the global map, Silverbird has become affiliated with Uniglobe Travel, a leading, Canadian-based international travel management company that has agents across 60 countries and which specialises in corporate and leisure travel for clients.

Through the affiliation, the staff and management get training that Uniglobe organises for its affiliate agents every three months, which not only helps in exposure to new technology but also acts as an opportunity to benchmark with peers.

“About eight years ago, Uniglobe started telling its affiliate agents to diversify into leisure management because of a changing trend in corporate travel. With many companies taking to online bookings, airlines have been adopting,” she said.

While the trend has been catching on in Africa, the biggest losers have been in Europe and America where online airline bookings have become the norm.

Three years ago, Silverbird sought to diversify into leisure travel management targeting the middle class – whose disposable income has grown over the years – with products like family holidays, weekend getaways, as well as honeymoon and safari packages. “We positioned ourselves so that people know that we are also doing leisure travel management. We have been getting enquiries from people who have travelled the whole Kenyan circuit and now want to travel out to countries like Vietnam, Israel, Egypt and Thailand for holiday,” she said.

Inbound travel

She said while the company focuses on both inbound and outbound travel, continued terror attacks and travel advisories have made marketing the country an uphill task.

“In 2012 we had a few cancellations. Last year was an election year so we did not have much inbound traffic and this year we are having to deal with grenades in various parts of the country. So you end up spending a lot of time on phone reassuring clients.”

She said the downturn in Europe has also affected corporate travel management for many clients who depend on foreign aid or money from parent companies. This has led to a slash in travel budgets.

“We have seen worse times like during the American Embassy bombing and the 2008 post-election violence. Things will turn around. The government needs to invest more in security and infrastructure since tourists are also looking for unique and rich experiences. They need to spend substantially on anti-poaching as well as other environment, conservation and hygiene systems,” she added.

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