TFc's £1m debut in meetings and events

Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 9:28 (BST)

This story was published by TTG, one of the UK's leading travel media company's, on 25th June 2008.

An Edinburgh-based travel management company is taking the meetings and events market by storm after only one a year in the sector.

TFc Travel Management decided just two years ago it would tentatively try and break-in to the lucrative M&E market.

Speaking to ttgbusiness.com at the Advantage Focus Champions conference in the Scottish capital, director of sales, Angelina Fairgrieve, said the company had already turned over its first £1 million and has ambitious expansion plans. Advantage bosses say the TMC’s success should be an example to other independents agencies that M&E should not be feared.

“When we started to plan our strategy two years ago we were very realistic and did not set ourselves unobtainable targets,” said Fairgrieve. “We researched and laid some solid foundations for the corporate M&E market. When you’re a smaller company it’s all about building your reputation, making people aware of your brand and consistently demonstating your ability. Our prudent approach has so far worked and we’ve reached £1 million turnover in only 12 months.”

TFc’s rapid success has forced it to bring forward plans to expand the sales team.

Said Fairgrieve: “We’ve been winning some very good contracts recently. In any business you must have a staff workload balance to manage projects efficiently so we’re bringing forward a recruitment drive by three months.”

While the TMC is reluctant to discuss exact targets, Fairgrieve says the company should “realistically” double its M&E profits in the next year.

Martin Ferguson - TTG reporter