EasyCar is a European based car rental company that was founded in 2000 by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a flamboyant self proclaimed cereal entrepreneur from Greece. The company’s mission was to give customers an outstanding value by providing a reliable service at a low price1. To achieve this mission easyCar took a very different approach than the traditional car rental companies in Europe. The main competitors to easyCar were Avis Europe, Europcar, Hertz, and Sixt. The company did everything is could to reduce costs and used technology to operate as efficiently as possible. Steilios’ ultimate goals were for the company to achieve revenues of £100 million and profits of £10 million by the end of 2004 so that he could take easyCar public in 2005. This goal seems lofty considering that in 2002 easyCar only broke even with revenues of £27 million. The pricing strategy for easyCar was to offer rental cars for the lowest prices in the industry. Prices were updated daily based on demand and location and the lowest prices could only be found if booked well in advance. In order to keep costs down easyCar only rented one type of car at each location and did not work with agents. Almost 95% of all car bookings were made through the company’s website with the others made through a phone reservation system that carried a €0.95 per minute charge. EasyCar’s information system calculated expected demand and enabled the company to achieve a utilization rate above 90 percent; this figure was much higher than industry leader Avis Europe’s utilization rate of 68 percent. To further reduce costs the company enacted stiff penalties for returning the car late and for not cleaning the before returning it to the rental office. Some customers complained that... ... middle of paper ... ...simply because it was successful in the airline industry. The plan for such rapid expansion, going from 46 to 180 locations in just two years, could prove to be a dangerous goal. Quick expansion without prior market research of the country a company is trying to enter is also a foolish plan and could lead to disaster. There is no doubt that the company will to need to expand to other locations if it wants to increase revenues, but it should take its time and make the necessary adaptations to increase the chance of success in the new cities. Today, according to easyCar.com, the company operates more than 2400 location in over 60 countries. While the company has not gone public, the low cost strategy appears to be successful. The company has changed its philosophy of only offering one vehicle model at each location; it now offers up to 12 models depending on the city2.
Fox Car Rental, Inc. began its operation in Los Vegas, Nevada, and quickly expanded their operations in many other states such as, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Montana, Washington, Utah, and Hawaii to mention a few. This organization has even gone beyond the host country’s location and have erected subsidiaries in Barbados, St, Lucia, Romania, Turkey, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Brazil, and New Zealand also mentioning only a few. However, the move to Florida was met with challenges to the car rental organization. In their expansion to Florida, the organization decided to plant its main base at Orlando, Florida, a seasonal tourist attraction geographical location. Even more, Florida was already dominated by a few major car rental companies such as, National Car Rental, Enterprise, Hertz, along with many other private car rental companies. The majority of profits car rental yield in Florida are from locations in the southern parts of the state, for example Fort Lauderdale Airport, and Miami, International Airport. It was difficult for Fox Car Rental, Inc. to establish a foothold at these Airport locations because of rental costs, and airport taxes which when incorporated in their operational expenses would inflate customers’ cost of vehicle rentals. Nonetheless, Fox Car Rental, Inc. has managed to obtai...
Breaking into new markets helps the company grow and brings in new customers, which leads to higher profit margins.
For the first 30 years of the company's existence it enjoyed huge profits from selling only automobile insurance. These large profits were achieved, due in part, to its targeted market which are generally people in the age range of 30-60 who are classified as a low risk "good drivers". The company's structure of selling insurance directly to the customer while providing excellent customer service is also a driving force to its success.
Hertz operates its car rental business through various brands in 145 different countries. Hertz was named, for the thirteenth time, by Travel + Leisure readers as the Best Car Rental Agency (Hertz Annual Report, 2013). Hertz is one of the top companies in the car rental industry by obtaining 18.6% of the market share (IBISWorld, 2014). In addition to the leading position that Hertz has built within its industry, the focus was to add more value offerings while recreating the experience in car rentals across the globe. Hertz employs both growth and competitive strategies to sustain competitiveness.
• CarMax allowed their customers access to their full inventory throughout the country and offered to have cars shipped from one location to another for a customer for a fee.
Operating an air - express transportation industry requires large capital investments, and therefore it can impede the entry of new firms into the industry. For one, Airborne has already its own set of aircrafts and even operate its own airport, and it would be hard for a new firm to compete with this.
...aving too many planes booked for a city, or having overlapping flight times would be detrimental to the bottom line. A second issue I see is that Airtran used Boeing 717’s in it’s fleet. Boeing purchased this airframe in the merger of McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and discontinued it’s production in 2006. Once an airframe is no longer produced replacement parts costs can climb. The airframe didn’t see major use as only 156 were produced furthering this problem. It would be advantageous for Airtran to dump these on the market and replace them with 737 models.
They have over 11,555 worldwide rental car locations and are at the point where they can cover their short-term liabilities with cash flow from their operations. Hertz’s adjusted earnings per share increased 77.1% meaning that their market value has increased. Their revenues increased by 34%, while they had a cumulative cost savings of $3 billion (Hertz Annual Report, 2013). This demonstrates that Hertz has the financial resources and the access to markets that they need. Hertz has successfully integrated their ExpressRent kiosks in more than 48 markets and their eReturn option for Hertz Gold loyalty program members, in which they have the ability to choose the Hertz ‘Fuel Purchase Value Option’ that lets them automatically buy a full tank at the start of the rental, so they can turn in the car with the gas at any level and not have to worry about filling up on the way to the
Twenty-two consecutive years of profitable operations which is unmatched in the US airline industry.
A weakness of Southwest Airlines is having a small footprint within the global market. Though they acquired AirTran, which expanded
Growing globally- Air Canada have the opportunity to grow globally by building their network with different countries and this relationship should be long lasting for more growth.
It has stayed relevant to the market through its propelled philosophy of relationships to generate profits in the business. Since its establishment in Monroe, Louisiana the once tiny airline has stretched to greater heights serving in 6 continents. It has also established a distinguishable name among its competitors with a reputation of leading customer services. However, even as an established venture, the company needs to maximize its profits in order to stay in business and expand in to new territories beyond its conquered boundaries. A strategic analysis was carried out by our team to establish the company’s current situation. A SWOT analysis was performed to come up with three referenced, strategic alternatives. This alternatives are meant to act as a strategic guidance to the company in order to enhance growth. The strategic recommendation provided will improve and enable the business to cope with the competitors while the implementation of the strategy section will outline the way to go about achieving these alternatives in the business setting. Lastly, we put up a discussion on the evaluation procedures and necessary controls for the
Sedgwick, David. "Pricing Power shifts to suppliers." Automotive News (2012): 2. online. 20 May 2014. .
One of the major positive impact of globalization can be seen in the expansion of airlines outside their home
Robin Chase founder of Zipcar started the business in the United States in 1999, and now operates in 14 cities and over 230 colleges, with more than 560,000 members (Esswein, P, 2011). Zipcar is designed for businesses to save money while meeting environmental sustainability goals and reduce the number of parking spots required by companies. Today, Zipcar’s 9,000 vehicles and 700,000 members make it the world’s leading car sharing network. Zipcar has operations concentrated in urban areas and college campuses throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Austria. They offer over 30 makes and models of vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for smart, simple and convenient solutions to their urban and campus