Rental Car Firm Hertz Buys Two Competitors to Expand Services
With travel by car on the rise around the world for tourists who prefer to get a more up close and personal look at the locales they plan to visit, rental car agencies have begun to strengthen their holdings, offering a variety of levels of car for hire programs to suit the needs of a range of travelers. Economy cars have been on the rise in recent years as more families have begun to opt for flying to a destination of choice, getting a hotel and touring by car instead of a guided tour. Hertz Global Holdings is following this trend by purchasing US based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group for which they paid $1.27 billion in total. Dollar Thrifty is what industry analysts consider to be a mid level brand, the level aimed specifically to families and travelers who are on a budget. This deal means that Hertz Global will be adding both Dollar and Thrifty brands to its company holdings along with its current Advantage and Hertz brands in an effort to inch past Avis Budget Group Inc. their primary competitor in the US car rental market.
The move allows Hertz Global to expand its network of car rental locations to more than 9,800 and the 4 brand strategy allows them to operate at several different offerings levels in order to drive a wedge into the market, advance past their competition and offer consumers a wider array of choices for hiring a car. As further advances are made in low cost alternative energy vehicles, road travel is expected to increase worldwide and this would bode well for Hertz, analysts say.