Before looking at the future of Supertripper, can you tell us about its history and mission?
Maxime Pialat - Supertripper was created in 2015. Its aim is to combine the best of service and technology to manage business travel. We are developing our own technology, a solution that enables travellers to book hotels, trains, car hire, seminars, etc., and that allows companies to simplify all their processes, automate their accounting, set up travel policies, etc. In short, to manage the entire business travel function, with the added benefit of a 24-hour service. We're really trying to combine the power of technology, via a modern, efficient platform, with a local, high-quality service, just like a travel agency.
So Supertripper also covers MICE?
Maxime Pialat - It's a small minority of our sales, but it's one of the requests that companies working with us may naturally have. We are therefore equipped to deal with these requests.
Could you comment on the latest announcement concerning Marietton's takeover of Supertripper?
Maxime Pialat - There was no desire to sell the company. We were growing fast, everything was going well, with very big figures every year. I was contacted by Marietton's management during the summer, and we had lunch with Laurent [Abitbol, CEO of Marietton]. Marietton Développement, Havas Voyages and Selectour, editor's note], and we realised that we had a unique opportunity. shared visionand that we could be very complementary. He was looking for a company and a skill set that were lacking within the Marietton Group. There are some great teams around Laurent, but he was looking for a certain expertise in technology, and someone to embody it. So we agreed very quickly.
How will this integration work?
Maxime Pialat - Supertripper will remain as it is, there will be no merger: the teams will remain in place, the brand too, we will continue to deploy our strategy and I will remain at the helm as Managing Director of Supertripper. At the same time, I'm going to join the Marietton board to help them both with companies to be acquired and with technology, and quite simply to share my vision, which is complementary to that of all the members of the Comex, who are all super professionals.
How do you share a common vision? How do you complement each other?
Maxime Pialat - It's relatively simple: we are conquerors. They too are driven by the desire to help the company grow, to imagine what the future of business travel will be and to anticipate changes. It's something that speaks to me, obviously! What sets us apart is perhaps my status as a tech entrepreneur, or even my 'enthusiasm', being a little younger than the members of the Comex, who are all absolute experts in the sector with incredible experience. The combination of the two is an explosive skills pool.
What will this operation change for business customers?
Maxime Pialat - Nothing, except that it will help us conquer the market more quickly. We won't have the image of a start-up with this big group behind us. It also helps to have a certain robustness, particularly for the winning over key accounts. We remain free to pursue our roadmap. Marietton decided to buy our company because they really like it and its dynamics. They're going to bring us new negotiating power that will enable our customers to pay less... Our first asset is our product. It makes all the difference in the market. So we're not going to change it, or distribute it to other brands. We'll probably have to think strategically about how we can help the rest of the group in the technological field. But our roadmap will remain as it is, and this operation will enable us to accelerate and enrich it.
What are the strategic priorities of your roadmap?
Maxime Pialat - Of course we're giving a lot of thought to everything to do with artificial intelligence. But it's not enough to put AI everywhere to satisfy our customers. We're thinking about how we can optimise the work of our travel agents so that they can use their expertise to help employees. There's also the wholeoptimising reporting. We've launched a brand new reporting tool on the Supertripper platform, which offers automated optimisation advice, with an overall score out of 100 for the company's travel strategy, broken down by item to show, for example, anticipation, efficiency in terms of CSR... This means we can display advice in real time. For example: "If you can anticipate bookings for x number of days, here's how much you can save". We launched this tool about three months ago. And we're going to continue in this direction.
Any other acquisitions in the pipeline?
Maxime Pialat - Of course, and this is also what's interesting about the project: we have the green light to make acquisitions, to grow Supertripper too. So we're not closing any doors. We have a lot of freedom, and I think that together we're going to be able to do something really good. There are ideas about internationalisation, and others about simply buying up portfolios and integrating them. With the technology we have, we are in a position to take over more traditional travel agencies and integrate them. And we are not closing the door at Group level to future acquisitions in the technology field in related sectors. The ultimate aim is to be in control of our own destiny. If we don't master technology today, in the age of AI, we don't master our destiny.
