HERTZ UAE has charted out an expansion plan that will see the brand open new offices and better collaborate with its international partner agencies, says the company’s general manager, Bob Farrow.
In terms of business for coming year, “2007 looks set to be excellent. The growth we saw in the last quarter of 2006 looks set to continue into this year, and [by the second week of January] we have already exceed last year’s January revenue. So the signs are good.”
The volume of business at Hertz UAE is as much as Hertz entire regional business put together, he says, largely because of Dubai.
The agency currently has 12 outlets across the UAE, a number it wants to increase to 20 within the next two years. These include shops at Dubai Festival City and Dubai Media City, as well as a major new site near the airport that will have a parking capacity of 500 vehicles, with operations of 4000-5000 cars a day.
“This allows us to service the airport with cars that have been cleaned and serviced at our base, rather than having to clean them in the street, like some operators,” says Farrow.
Other plans for 2007 include upgrading the company’s IT systems as well as increased training for staff at different levels in the business so as to be able to grow and promote talent from within.
“2006 started badly because of the cancellation of the shopping festival but ended well – by the end of the year, we were more than 25 per cent over the previous year,” he says. This, despite pulling out of such businesses as the airport transfers business, which several companies can now do very cheap, as well as being more selective in the commercial vehicles market.
As for agents, Farrow acknowledges that payments follow a roundabout system at the moment. “But it’s something we’re looking at, and it will change, especially once we can enable credit card payments online.”