How Evaneos Protects Margins from FX Risk While Paying Suppliers in their Local Currencies

Company Overview

‍Evaneos is a leading travel experience company specialising in tailor-made trips. Based in Paris, France, Evaneos collaborates with over 600 travel agencies in 160 destinations to offer local travel experiences to their customers. Due to the nature of the business, foreign exchange (FX) is a crucial aspect of operations. The company receives payments from clients in five different currencies and transfers funds in 23 other currencies to its partners, making foreign exchange management a key component of its financial operations.

FX Management Challenges

Before implementing Kantox, Evaneos managed FX transactions manually using spreadsheets, primarily handling spot conversions in USD without any automation or structured processes. The lack of automation resulted in inefficiencies and risks associated with currency fluctuations.

The tourism industry is particularly vulnerable to currency fluctuations, as payment plans typically involve deposits and balances over extended periods. To protect themselves, agencies often applied markups of up to 7-8% on prices, increasing the cost of travel and leading to disputes when exchange rates differed from publicly available figures. Additionally, with a small treasury team—essentially one dedicated person—efficiently managing these complexities was challenging.

Implementing Kantox

Evaneos chose to work with Kantox six years ago to better protect both its partners and clients. The company adopted Kantox’s Dynamic Hedging solution, integrating it seamlessly via API. This ensured that all conversions and payments were automatically processed.

Through Kantox’s system, Evaneos now automatically processes over 500 monthly transfers. By implementing new processes to secure payments from deposits to balances, Evaneos ensures its partners are no longer at risk from currency fluctuations, and clients are charged the amount at the agreed-upon exchange rate without any mark-ups due to volatility.

With the processes we put in place with the help of Kantox, now the agencies are pushing the hedging as commercial agreements and it’s increased their sales rate. So we saw that, most of them increase by 1.5 points sales rates, pushing the security of the fixed price.

Benefits of Using Kantox

Since implementing Kantox, Evaneos has significantly improved its FX management and automation, leading to multiple key benefits:

• Reduced FX risk for partners: With hedging solutions in place, agencies can quote fixed prices from day one, ensuring stability for clients and eliminating the need for price markups.
• Improved customer experience: Clients now see and pay a fixed price in their own currency, ensuring transparency and eliminating uncertainty about final costs.
• Enhanced competitiveness: With better FX management, local agencies no longer need to factor in large buffer margins, allowing them to offer more competitive prices. This has led to an increase in sales rates by 1.5x.
• Full automation: Payments, conversions, and hedging processes are now automated, streamlining operations and reducing manual workload. The accounting team has saved approximately 10 hours per month in payment reconciliation due to improved reporting.
• Exceptional customer support: Evaneos has received consistent and reliable assistance from Kantox’s Customer Success team, facilitating smooth operations and addressing any challenges promptly.