NEW YORK -- Holiday Autos International, the U.K.-based car rental
consolidator, purchased the remaining 50% of Kemwel Holiday Autos
(KHA), a joint venture formed by Holiday Autos and the Kemwel Group
in 1997.
While Holiday Autos International will now have sole ownership
of the company, the firm will retain the name Kemwel Holiday Autos.
Kemwel, founded in 1908, was one of the first companies to focus on
renting cars to the American leisure market traveling in Europe.
The company was owned by the Wellner family.
Clive Jacobs, chairman and chief executive of Holiday Autos,
said that the move was part of the firm's growth strategy. "Over
time, the strategic objectives of Holiday Autos and the objectives
of the Wellner family became quite different, and we mutually
agreed to go forward," said Jacobs.
Jacobs said that KHA would seek to continue growth in the North
American overseas leisure markets (i.e. North Americans renting
cars while on vacation overseas).
Because Holiday Autos a has substantial presence in
intra-European markets, Jacobs said the parent firm wasn't
dependent on profitability in the North America. This gives Kemwel
Holiday Autos the "ability to be very competitive on price,"
according to Jacobs.
"We are free to do what we want to do, and we're looking to
build marketshare even if it means not being as profitable," said
Jacobs.
As part of the restructuring, Michael Wellner will leave his
post as president of KHA, and Jacobs said that he is currently
searching for a replacement.