Cendant Exec Heads Avis Sales

Avis Rent A Car System has appointed Chuck Fallon, a former Cendant executive, as its new executive vice president of sales, following the retirement of veteran Avis executive Thomas Byrnes, who has served as the company's senior vice president of U.S. rent a car sales for the past 15 years. The announcement ties Avis' rental car sales effort more closely to that of its parent company, Cendant Corp., which acquired Avis in March and shortly thereafter appointed another Cendant exec, Scott Deaver, as Avis executive vice president of marketing.

Fallon, who joined Cendant in 1998 after working as a director in the investment banking division of Salomon Smith Barney, brings to his new post extensive sales and marketing experience, as well as a background in finance. He was most recently COO of Cendant Membership Services, Cendant's former $700 million direct marketing unit. Fallon was instrumental in executing the recent management buy-out of the unit by Trilegiant Corp. Previously, he headed Cendant's Preferred Alliance Group, and under his leadership the group generated more than $100 million in annual profits from corporate partners.

Fallon said one goal was to explore more synergies between Cendant's numerous other travel businesses and Avis. "Cendant has its fingers in a lot of different pies," he said. "My understanding of other businesses within Cendant allows us to look at opportunities with clients differently."

Fallon expects to work closely with Avis' seasoned sales team to "hold the course" in what could be difficult times ahead. "Our business strategy won't shift dramatically," he said. "Our focus will continue to be delivering high quality service to our customers. We'll continue our business focus, but also leverage into the leisure sector, which has been our strategy for the past five years." Another emphasis will be on Avis' global business.

Currently, Avis' biggest challenge is the depressed pricing environment, which Byrnes blamed on money-losing competitor National Car Rental. Byrnes said Avis' refusal to match the low-ball prices offered by National recently resulted in the loss of a major account. How Avis will deal with such price competition in the future is an open question. Fallon noted that if rate undercutting continues, "we can't blindly not react," although he reiterated that the Avis "team is doing a good job. We've been through this before and Avis has always come out of it in a solid position. At the same time, we can't rest on our laurels."