Advantage Rent-A-Car has tapped a 30-year veteran of the car rental industry as its new chief operating officer as the brand positions itself to become bigger presence in the market.
Paul Hemmert this month began work at San Antonio, Texas-based Advantage, the smallest of the major rental brands with a presence largely in the South and the Southwest. He worked at National Car Rental System for 30 years, doing everything from washing cars to serving as the executive vice president of operations, as well as taking a role in National's merger with Alamo Rent-A-Car and acting a president of both National and Alamo in Canada, he said. He left the car rental industry in 2003 to work for AIMCO, the largest apartment provider in the country, but when he ran into Advantage CEO George Gremse, with whom he had worked at National in the 1990s, in the San Antonio airport, Gremse convinced him to return to the industry.
"I got a chance to look at the company and look at the opportunity they have in many areas," Hemmert said. "If you take the combination they currently have on the fleet side, their system side and the culture this company has, it really is wonderful."
Advantage is undergoing several changes at the top. Gremse was named CEO only last March, soon after the company was bought from its holding company, Walker Resources, by a group of investors that included one of Advantage's fleet service providers
(BTN, March 20). Following that deal, Advantage began to replace its entire fleet with new vehicles from the DaimlerChrysler and GM lines.
The new fleet plus the new capital from the sale has Advantage poised to increase its footprint not only within its established markets but also some new markets, including a move eastward, the company said. Advantage reported 123 U.S. corporate locations and 127 foreign affiliate locations in BTN's 2006 Business Travel Survey. About 27 percent of its revenue is from corporate travel, but Hemmert said the company should be able to increase that share.
"If you look at the pockets we're currently in," Hemmert said, "we feel that we're in a great position to be a secondary supplier to many corporations."