2015 was a good year for Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT). The company has just announced solid financial results for the year just passed, including an increase in new business sales to $1.7 billion; an increase in North American transactions by 1.1%; a 94% client retention rate; and 90% travel manager satisfaction.

Breaking it down, CWT increased its new business sales to US$1.7 billion, while its transactions were stable at 61.4 million. Overall sales volume reached US$24.2 billion, reflecting the significant curtailment in travel expenses by energy customers. Excluding the impact of the energy portfolio, transactions increased by 1.3%.

North American transactions were up by 1.1%. Transactions in Europe, Middle East and Africa declined by 1.2%, while Latin America volume was off 7.8% due to the weight of the energy sector and the economic recession in Brazil. Asia Pacific volumes were stable.

CWT maintained its strong client satisfaction scores with travel manager satisfaction of 90%, combined with an 88% traveller satisfaction rating and a 94% retention rate.

As well, 2015 was another strong year for CWT’s CWT To Go app, with a 62% growth in user registrations to 560,000. In early 2015, CWT launched fully integrated mobile hotel booking in 17 markets.

Douglas Anderson, president & CEO of CWT commented, “2015 was a challenging year for the industry overall given the continued sharp fall in energy prices and oil in particular. We nevertheless delivered solid results. We continued to focus on enhancing our technology offering, with the deployment of mobile hotel booking on CWT To Go and the global launch of CWT AnalytIQs, a powerful tool to report and manage travel data. Finally, we strengthened our growth platform in France with the acquisition of Ormès, a leader in Meetings and Events, and the sale of our leisure business Havas Voyages.”