Announcements
Driving business to the neighborhood branch
Today, an Enterprise branch exists within 10 miles of approximately 90 percent of the population within the United Kingdom and Ireland. Combined with the home-city focus and brand-building underway across Europe, Enterprise continues to grow home-city leisure business abroad.
The idea is to encourage the same customer who may first hire an Enterprise vehicle when his or her car is in the shop to return to a local Enterprise branch to hire a vehicle for personal use.
Enterprise Europe shares the same philosophy of growth that Enterprise has in the United States, says Senior Vice President of European Operations Jim Burrell. "We are determined to establish long-term stability in Europe, and the structure of our neighborhood business is built to achieve this," he says. "By concentrating on healthy business development and the launch of our consumer brand here, more opportunities for our employees will follow."
This neighborhood network gives Enterprise a competitive advantage, as the company's closest competitor has less than half of the number of locations as Enterprise in the United Kingdom. "Our goal is to develop the U.K. home-city market and raise awareness of our retail brand," says Jim. "This parallels the company's U.S. development in the late 1980s and early 1990s."
Enterprise's presence on European Web sites is helping this home-city push with a record-breaking number of reservations made at www.enterprise.co.uk and www.enterprise.ie. And Enterprise's first television advertisement in the United Kingdom, which launched this year, is resulting in great feedback, says Jim.
The launch of the Home City Rate Team in Europe this spring has also helped this push, according to Diane Lynch, Assistant Vice President. This team helps each branch and group consistently price vehicle hires with tiered rates to ensure Enterprise remains competitive within the industry.
Loading and quoting appropriate rates, along with the branch-building and television advertisements, are spurring more awareness from retail customers. "It's a very exciting time for us as we've never really focused as intensely on retail business as we are now out in the local marketplace," says Diane. "Our television advertising is getting people to our branches' doors, and our people are differentiating Enterprise within this market."
- Rhonda Sciarra
