Centrale Archives - Com Namibia

TourMaG – How is Centrale Voyages’ activity faring in the current context?

François Lévêque : At Centrale Voyages, we work on two main fronts. The business travel side is not doing badly overall. After a challenging 2025 marked by government uncertainties in France, activity has fairly rebounded.

On the leisure side, as everyone knows, we’re navigating a tougher period, thanks in particular to our friend Donald (Trump, ed. note).

We mustn’t forget the Ukraine-Russia conflict that affected us for several months. In addition, the Middle East conflict has been ongoing since February 28.

This isn’t limited to trips to the Middle East, but also to Asian destinations, since three-quarters of flights are operated by Middle Eastern carriers that pass through Dubai, Abu Dhabi or the Qatar hubs. This situation leaves customers in a state of uncertainty.

Centrale Voyages acquires Meltour in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

TourMaG – How significant is the business travel segment today at Centrale Voyages?

François Lévêque : The essence of Centrale Voyages is truly business travel. When I took over this company two years ago, it represented 80% of our revenue.

My goal is to rebalance the revenue mix between leisure, MICE – which I will address later – and business travel. Today, business travel remains the predominant activity.

TourMaG – On the leisure side, you’re making acquisitions; where do things stand?

François Lévêque : As TourMaG announced a few weeks ago, I just acquired two agencies in the Île-de-France region, one in Montigny-le-Bretonneux and one in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés: Meltour.

The objective is to acquire turnover and client portfolios, but also to gain complementary know-how beyond what we already possess. We have launched a comprehensive digital communications push for the last six weeks. We signed for one year, hoping to attract new clients and generate leads to develop leisure at Centrale Voyages.

We rolled out these efforts at a time when we’re confronted with the crisis in the Middle East. That timing isn’t ideal.

But in tourism, one must anticipate events like these. There are regular recoveries after crises, so I remain confident for the future.

“In times of crisis, you must not sit idly by”

TourMaG – Remind us of the scope of your network. Is your goal to reach 15 to 20 agencies in total?

François Lévêque : Today we have 11 agencies: one in Marseille, one in Aix-en-Provence, and the rest in the Paris region. We aim for 20 agencies within two years.

The aim is really to adopt the mindset that during a crisis you must not sit on your hands. Otherwise, as one former mentor of mine used to say, everything seems fine while the boat is slowly sinking…

I believe it’s always worth considering opportunities that open up during downturns. Today there are indeed some on-the-ground agencies that are no longer very profitable, run by leaders who have not fully embraced digital evolution, and it is quite possible to inject some energy into these agencies and make them profitable again. That’s the bet I’m placing during this period of crisis.

TourMaG – How do you choose deals? Is it about location? The storefront? Price? How does it work?

François Lévêque : To be quite honest, it’s all about opportunity. The first opportunity is Montigny-le-Bretonneux. The agency is part of Manor, and the owner suggested, then offered me the chance to take over his agency.

The second agency, however, came to me through my accounting firm, which has overseen this company for 30 years and presented the opportunity. When you acquire an agency, your biggest worry is uncovering anything that has been hidden or glossed over to make the bride look better. The advantage of sharing the same accounting firm is that you know the business is clean and overseen by people you’ve known for a long time.

That makes the acquisition process much more reassuring and limits the unpleasant surprises that can surface a few months later.

Agencies with prime locations still have a real future

TourMaG – There are plenty of opportunities; are there many retirements?

François Lévêque : There are many retirements. The Meltour agency in Saint-Maur is one example, but it’s the case for most deals I review. They’re often led by managers approaching retirement age. Since Covid, the industry has changed and evolved, and many are stepping down. There are currently a lot of deals on the market.

TourMaG – Do you believe in physical travel agencies in the age of artificial intelligence?

François Lévêque : I don’t have a crystal ball. I closed one agency in December because there was no longer a flow and there was no logic in keeping it. Today, I’m reconsidering several others.

However, I do think that agencies with a good location have a real future. There will always be business conducted in person, especially for clients seeking tailor-made journeys who need to trust the agent who guides and builds their trip.

“On business travel, margins are razor-thin”

“Clients are increasingly demanding”

TourMaG – There was a HR challenge after Covid. Do you still face recruitment issues and are you hiring?

François Lévêque : We are recruiting because some employees are retiring, while others choose to leave the agency or even the industry. Both situations are present today.

And no, recruiting isn’t easy. You hear that some agencies are closing, but that doesn’t make it any easier to hire travel consultants. I’m mainly referring to leisure tourism. We have more ease recruiting for the business travel side, which is a more technical field and less sales-oriented.

Conversely, in leisure, it’s a real commercial profession. The advisor builds and sells a file, but until the client signs, they can easily move to someone else. This dimension makes the role more demanding.

Clients are also increasingly demanding and agents sometimes suffer from a lack of recognition. They are solicited at all hours, including evenings and weekends, because that has become almost normal today. Like everyone, they would like to disconnect and enjoy their free time.

It’s often because they are highly professional and deeply committed that they end up burning out from this constant availability. Today, recruiting good travel consultants who are still happy in their job and want to thrive in leisure travel isn’t straightforward.

“My objective is to reach 20 agencies, 50 million euros in turnover”

TourMaG – Centrale Voyages, in three years, how big will it be? What will the group’s structure look like?

François Lévêque : My objective is to reach 20 agencies and 50 million euros in turnover, with one third from business travel, one third from leisure, and one third from MICE. To me, that would be the ideal balance.

This equilibrium helps distribute risk more evenly. There is always one activity that endures tougher periods than the others. The idea is that the other two segments can support the business and help it weather the crises of the third line.

Why 50 million euros? I don’t really know where that figure comes from, but since I arrived two years ago, I’ve been told that once you reach this threshold, suppliers start looking at you differently and you can secure better negotiating terms, especially regarding margins.

This objective may evolve over time, but it’s the target I’ve set and we will strive to achieve it within the next three years.

Centrale Voyages rachète l’agence Agis Voyages à Montigny-le-Bretonneux - Depositphotos

CroisiEurope

It took two years for him to master his new universe and to feel truly fulfilled.

Early 2024, François Lévêque buys Centrale Voyages. His daily life, which he had imagined as a succession of dreams on distant shores and discoveries of foreign cultures, runs into the reality of being a business travel ticketing specialist.

He told us at the time that he was getting to grips with unfamiliar terms, infinitesimal margins and a vocation that he described as a “hard, very technical” job.

Two years later, the man who has entrepreneurship in his blood is finally able to breathe easy.

“This profession wears me out, but I feel happy and fulfilled. I have finally put in place what I wanted, steered in a direction, and even if there is still much to learn, I feel good about it.

And last week, I had the immense honor of sharing breakfast with Jean-Noël Barrot, the minister of Foreign Affairs, and to visit the Quai d’Orsay. An incredible experience“, enthuses the man who, with Raphaël Torro, can proudly claim to be the tourism industry’s leading boss… at least in sheer size.

The industry and its networking open doors one would not expect. It also enables travel and, ultimately, preserves that explorer’s spirit and the big-child inside us all.

Above all, the sector remains a fantastic playground for entrepreneurs, starting with François Lévêque.

Acquisition of Centrale Voyages: “the bride is always a little more beautiful than reality”

As we noted, the group posted 2024 revenue of 33 million euros with 33 employees, and the long-term target remained 50 million.

This target hasn’t changed, but the path to it required going through a phase that would have discouraged many others.

“When you take over a business, the bride is always a little more beautiful than reality.

And you always know there will be a rough patch afterward. When the company is at 100, it slides to 90 or 80, during the restructuring, and customers and staff closely tied to the former owner may leave.

The mistake to avoid is waiting for that storm to pass and for everything to return to normal. We rolled up our sleeves“, reinterprets the head of the company.

He then recruits a chief commercial officer, Christelle François, and Didier Caliari becomes the new business developer for the firm. Meanwhile, Valérie Jacomino, a long-time collaborator, takes on the role of chief executive of the group.

To read : Centrale Voyages expands its teams to “take off”

Once the rough patch was behind them and the teams were structured, Centrale Voyages was doing well and even managed to catch up on its backlog, about 15%, after the acquisition.

“We are in a phase where we are signing a large number of contracts in business travel.

That’s a good dynamic, even if I must note that the margins are clearly lower than what I was told when I signed the acquisition. It’s not that I was deceived; it’s just that the market is on a downward slope, particularly due to digital players. On top of that, there is a very clear economic pressure in France“, lays out the delighted owner.

Centrale Voyages: “My main challenge is to develop leisure”

Be it in business travel or civil society, the world has changed rapidly, within just two years.

AI was then merely a buzzword, Donald Trump wasn’t even certain he could run for the American presidency, and Jordan Bardella was still just a TikToker.

“Back then, the profession and the companies had only one thing on their lips: CSR. Today, no one mentions it. The only words that bosses and decision-makers mouth are price and commission. Those are our only topics with our clients.

On this portion of the business travel, we are up and running. Now, my main challenge is to develop leisure“, he notes with a genuine smile.

This latter activity is not entirely marginal, but it does not account for more than 15% of his volume and must gain substantial momentum very quickly.

The diversification of activity is vital, especially when crises stack up. Yet it is not as easy as it seems. In taking over Centrale Voyages, François Lévêque quickly realized that leisure and business travel were completely hermetic – two distinct worlds.

He discovers that people who love business ticketing, or those who love leisure, never do both. They remain specialists in one segment. So, to grow, he develops and structures his internal operation.

“In terms of margin and cash flow, leisure is clearly more advantageous. Then, we will move into MICE, to have a three-legged stool on which to advance.

We are working on creating a website. For the classic tourism segment, we had no online platform.

We will rectify this anomaly during the summer. And since early May, we have been active on social media, where we are supported by Virginie Faivet, he confides.

The aim is to generate leads for travel agents. Above all, François Lévêque realizes that to move quickly, external growth is indispensable.

Centrale Voyages takes over the Agis agency in Montigny-le-Bretonneux…

Centrale Voyages reprend l’agence Agis de Montigny-le-Bretonneux... - Crédit photo : Centrale Voyages

As a newcomer, acquisition offers flood in.

Some slip away, and, after speaking with other sector leaders, it is particularly tricky to sense the right deal.

“At a regional EDV congress, as a joke, François Calvino announced in front of everyone that he would give away a point of sale for free to whoever wants it, because it costs him less to offer it than to close the agency.

In his premises, under his business benches in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, he had created an agency. This isn’t his passion and he never really dwelt on the subject to develop the affair.

We participated in a round table, we talked, we both work at Manor, the deal was concluded quickly“, recounts the new owner without mincing words.

The Agis agency in Montigny-le-Bretonneux generates a business volume of 1.2 million euros per year. Centrale Voyages has acquired the business and one employee, but the structure is set to grow further. In fact, the first recruit is planned within two weeks.

Marketing operations will be launched and the storefront will be redesigned to revitalize the activity of this location.

Moreover, in a few weeks, another acquisition is expected to be fully completed, still within leisure. This time, the agency is somewhat larger, with four employees and nearly 3 million euros of autoproduced activity.

Other avenues are being explored, such as the purchase of a mini-network.

“Margins are collapsing and the economic environment is rather negative… Nevertheless, I think it is precisely in these periods that one should strive to strengthen the business.

Moreover, we clearly see that the sector is at a crossroads, with many leaders nearing retirement without a buyer and sometimes preferring simply to close their sales points rather than selling them.

I am trying to take advantage of this to grow the tourism side of the group, while questioning the future of physical travel agencies“, explains François Lévêque.

… another acquisition in sight, with the objective of owning between 15 and 20 agencies!

The aim is straightforward: beyond growing the company and reaching a turnover of 50 million euros, he also wants to give the group a sense of purpose and a future.

To that end, the leader appears to have a fairly clear plan of action.

“I must expand my client portfolio, while pursuing a strategy of premiumising the products. I would like to build a leisure agency network of between 15 and 20 outlets.

My conviction from the start has been to seek people who have money, love travel, but don’t have much time to organise their holidays or don’t want to do it themselves.

These people are willing to pay for it. In return, they must receive an extraordinary service, with constant availability and total dedication“, envisages Centrale Voyages’ chief.

Once this development is complete, in a few years, he will be able to breathe a little and set new objectives.

In the meantime, the battle is far from over. The new tourism player fights every file to stand out and secure the signatures needed to ensure the activity’s long-term viability.

“My role, as an entrepreneur, is to grow the business commercially, bring in money so the shop keeps running. Then, it is to structure so that once the momentum is created, the group can run without you. This frees up time to start new projects, such as MICE, which will be the next major project, and to gain perspective. My dream is that, in five years, the company will be perfectly structured, it will grow on its own, that I will not be needed for any position and I can travel.
Until then, as I often say, I am happy and I follow the guidance of a close friend in the sector who told me: you will work like a dog, you will never be rich, but take the opportunity to explore the world and seize the chances to travel.

I have clearly decided to follow his good advice,” concludes the leader.

François Lévêque (Centrale Voyages): Seizing Opportunities in Times of Crisis