Easycar.com: Strategic service system design.

Lawrence, John J. ; Solis, Luis

CASE DESCRIPTION

The primary subject matter of this case concerns concepts relating to operations strategy and service system design. Secondary issues examined include the application of production line approaches to service, service quality concepts, and the value of demand management systems to the firm. The case has a difficulty level of four/five. The case was written for an MBA level introductory operations management class. It is also suitable for use in operations strategy or service operations management courses, at either the MBA or senior undergraduate level. The case has been designed to be taught in 75 minutes and is expected to require about two hours of outside preparation.

CASE SYNOPSIS

This case describes the situation faced by easyCar.com at the start of 2003. EasyCar is the low priced European car rental business founded by easyJet pioneer Stelios Haji-Ioannou. EasyCar had just reached breakeven in 2002 on sales of 27 million [pounds sterling], and had as its goals to reach sales of [pounds sterling] 100 million and profits of 10 million [pounds sterling] by the end of fiscal year 2004 in order to position itself for an initial public offering. To do this would require opening new locations at a rate of two per week and expanding its fleet of rental cars from 7000 to 24,000. The case describes the company's processes and facilities as well as its pricing and promotional strategies. It also describes a number of significant changes that the company has made in the last year, including a move to allow rentals for as little as an hour that was designed to position easyCar as a competitor to local taxis, buses, trains and even car ownership. The case also explores several legal challenges the firm faced, including a ruling that threatened one of the core elements of its business model. Students are asked to evaluate easyCar's operations strategy and assess the likelihood that easyCar will be able to achieve its ambitious goals.

INTRODUCTION

At easyCar we aim to offer you outstanding value for money. To us value for money means a reliable service at a low price. We achieve this by simplifying the product we offer, and passing on the benefits to you in the form of lower prices (easyCar.com website, 2003).

This was the stated mission of car rental company easyCar.com. EasyCar was a member of the EasyGroup family of companies, founded by the flamboyant Greek entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who was known simply as Stelios to most. Stelios founded low cost air carrier EasyJet.com in 1995 after convincing his father, a Greek shipping billionaire, to loan him the 5 million [pounds sterling] (Note: In January, 2003, 1 [pounds sterling]= 1.52 [euro] = U.S.$1.61) needed to start the business (The big picture, 2003). EasyJet was one of the early low cost, no frills air carriers in the European market. It was built upon a foundation of simple point to point flights, booked over the internet, and the aggressive use of yield management policies to maximize the revenues it derived from its assets. The company proved highly successful, and as a result Stelios had expanded this business model to industries with similar characteristics as the airline industry. EasyCar, founded in 2000 on a 10 million [pounds sterling] investment on the part of Stelios, was one of these efforts.

EasyCar's approach, built on the easyJet model, was quite different than the approaches used by the traditional rental car companies. EasyCar rented only a single vehicle type at each location it operated, while most of its competitors rented a wide variety of vehicle types. EasyCar did not work with agents--over 95% of its bookings were made through the company's website, with the remainder of bookings being made directly through the company's phone reservation system (at a cost to the customer of 0.95 [euro]/minute for the call). Most rental car companies worked with a variety of intermediaries, with their own websites accounting for less than 10% of their total booking (Click to fly, 2004). And like easyJet, easyCar managed prices in an attempt to have its fleet rented out 100% of the time and to generate the maximum revenue from its rentals. EasyCar's information system constantly evaluated projected demand and expected utilization at each site, and adjusted price accordingly. Because of its aggressive pricing, easyCar was able to achieve a fleet utilization rate in excess of 90% (Simpkins, 2002)--much higher than other major rental car companies. Industry leader Avis Europe, for example, had a fleet utilization rate of 68% (Avis Europe plc, 2002).

It was January, 2003. EasyCar had broken even in the fiscal year ending September 2002 (Simpkins, 2002) on revenues of 27 million [pounds sterling] (Marketing, 2003). This represented a significant improvement over 2001, when easyCar had lost 7.5 million [pounds sterling] on revenues of 18.5 million [pounds sterling] (Burt, 2002). While pleased that the company had broken even in only its 3rd year in operation, Stelios had set aggressive financial goals for easyCar for the next two years. Plans called for a quadrupling of revenues in the next two years in preparation for a planned initial public offering in the second half of 2004. EasyCar's goal was to reach 100 million [pounds sterling]in revenue and 10 million [pounds sterling] in profit for the year 2004. The 100 million [pounds sterling] revenue goal and 10 million [pounds sterling] profit goal were felt necessary to obtain the desired return from an IPO. It was thought that with this level of performance, the company might be worth about 250 million [pounds sterling] (Hodgson, 2002). In order to achieve these financial goals, the company was pushing to open an average of 2 new sites a week through 2003 and 2004 to reach a total of 180 sites by the end of 2004 (Simpkins, 2002).

THE RENTAL CAR INDUSTRY IN WESTERN EUROPE

The Western European rental car industry consisted of many different national markets that were only semi-integrated. While there were many companies that competed within this European rental car industry, a handful of companies held dominant positions, either across a number of national markets or within one or a few national markets. Industry experts saw the sector as ripe for consolidation (Marketing week, 2002). Several international companies--notably Avis, Europcar, and Hertz--had strong positions across most major European markets. Within most countries, there was also a primarily national or regional company that had a strong position in its home market and perhaps moderate market share in neighboring markets. Sixt was the market leader in Germany, for example, while Atesa (in partnership with National) was the market leader in Spain. Generally these major players accounted for more than half of the market. In Germany, for example, Sixt, Europcar, Avis and Hertz had a combined 60% of the 2.5 billion [euro] German rental car market (easyCar set to shake up German market, 2002). In Spain, the top five firms accounted for 60% of the 920 million [euro] Spanish rental car market. Generally, these top firms targeted both business and vacation travelers and offered a wide range of vehicles for rent. Table 1 provides basic information on these market-leading companies.

In addition to these major companies in each market, there were many smaller rental companies operating in each market. In Germany, for example, there were over 700 smaller companies (easyCar set to shake up German Market, 2002), while in Spain there were more than 1600 smaller companies. Many of these smaller companies operated at only one or a few locations, and were particularly prevalent in tourist locations. There were also a number of brokers operating in the sector, like Holiday Autos. Brokerage companies did not own their own fleet of cars, but basically managed the excess inventory of other companies and matching customers with rental companies with excess fleet capacity.

Overall, the rental car market could be thought of as composed of two broad segments, a business segment and a tourist/leisure segment. Depending on the market, the leisure segment represented somewhere between 45% and 65% of the overall market, and a large part of this segment was very price conscious. The business segment made up the remaining 35% to 55% of the market. It was less price sensitive than the tourist segment, and more concerned about service quality, convenience, and flexibility. .

THE GROWTH OF EASYCAR

EasyCar opened its first location in London, on 20 April 2000 under the name EasyRentacar. In the same week, EasyCar opened locations in Glasgow and Barcelona. All three locations were popular EasyJet destinations. Vehicles initially could be rented for as low as i15/day plus a one-time car preparation fee of i8. Each of these locations had a fleet consisting entirely of Mercedes A-class vehicles. It was the only vehicle that EasyCar rented at the time.

EasyCar had signed a deal with Mercedes, amidst much fanfare, at the Geneva Motor Show earlier in the year to purchase a total of 5000 A-class vehicles. The vehicles, which came with guaranteed buy-back terms, cost easyCar's parent company a little over 6 million [pounds sterling] (Hodgson, 2002). Many in the car rental industry were surprised by the choice, expecting easyCar to rely on less expensive models (Felsted, 2002). In describing the acquisition of the 5000 Mercedes vehicles, Stelios had said:

"The choice of Mercedes reflects the easyGroup brand. EasyRentacar will use brand new Mercedes cars in the same way that easyJet uses brand new Boeing aircraft. We do not compromise on the hardware, we just use innovation to substantially reduces costs. The car hire industry is where the airline industry was five years ago, a cartel feeding off the corporate client. EasyRentacar will provide a choice for consumers who pay out of their own pockets and who will not be ripped off for traveling mid-week."(easyCar news release, 1 March 200)

EasyCar quickly expanded to other locations, focusing first on those locations that were popular with EasyJet customers, including Amsterdam, Geneva, Nice and Malagra. By July of 2001, a little over a year after its initial launch, EasyCar had fleets of Mercedes A-class vehicles in 14 locations in the UK, Spain, France and the Netherlands. At this point, EasyCar secured 27 million [pounds sterling] from a consortium of Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking and NBGI Private Equity to further expand its operations. The package consisted of a combination of equity and loan stock.

While EasyCar added a few sites in the second half of 2001 and early 2002, volatile demand in the wake of the September 11 attacks forced easyCar to roll out new rental locations somewhat slower than originally expected (Burt, 2002). Growth accelerated, however, in the spring of 2002. Between May 2002 and January 2003, EasyCar opened 30 new locations, to go from 18 sites to a total of 48 sites. This acceleration in growth also coincided with a change in easyCar's policy regarding the make up of its fleet. By May of 2002, easyCar's fleet consisted of 6000 Mercedes A-class vehicles across 18 sites. Beginning in May, however, easyCar began to stock its fleet with other types of vehicles. It still maintained its policy of only offering a single vehicle at each location, but now the vehicle the customer received depended on the location. The first new vehicle easyCar introduced was the Vauxhall Corsa. According to Stelios,

"Vauxhall Corsas cost easyCar [pounds sterling] 2 a day less than Mercedes A-Class so we can pass this saving on to customers. Customers themselves will decide if they want to pay a premium for a Mercedes. EasyGroup companies benefit from economies of scale where relevant but we also want to create contestable markets among our suppliers so that we can keep the cost to our customers as low as possible." (easyCar news release, 2 May 2002)

By January 2003, EasyCar was also using Ford Focuses (4 locations), Renault Clios (3 locations), Toyota Yarises (3 locations), and Mercedes Smart cars (2 locations) in addition to the Vauxhall Corsas (7 locations) and the Mercedes A-Class vehicles (28 locations). Plans called for a further expansion of the fleet, from the 7000 vehicles that easyCar had in January to 24,000 vehicles across 180 rental sites by the end of 2004 (Marketing week, 2003)

In addition to making vehicles available at more locations, easyCar had also changed its policies for 2003 to allow rentals for as little as one hour, and with as little as one hours notice of rental. By making this change, Stelios felt that easyCar could be a serious competitor to local taxis, buses, trains and even car ownership. EasyCar expected that if it made car rental simple enough and cheap enough, that some people living in traffic congested European cities who only use their car occasionally would give up the costs and hassles of car ownership and simply hire an easyCar when they needed a vehicle. Tapping into this broader transportation market would help the company reach its ambitious future sales goals.

FACILITIES

EasyCar had facilities in a total of 17 cities in 5 European countries, as shown in Table 2. It primarily located its facilities near bus and train stations in the major European cities, seeking out sites that offered lower lease costs. It generally avoided prime airport locations, as the cost for space at, and in some cases, near airports, was significantly higher than most other locations. When easyCar did locate near an airport, it generally chose sites off the airport, in order to reduce the cost of the lease. Airport locations also tended to require longer hours to satisfy customers arriving on late flights or departing on very early flights. EasyCar kept its airport locations open 24 hours a day, whereas its other locations were generally only open from 07:00--23:00.

The physical facilities at all locations were kept to a minimum. In many locations, EasyCar leased space in an existing parking garage. Employees worked out of a small, self-contained cubicle within the garage. The cubicle, depending on the location, might be no more than 15 m2, and included little more than a small counter and a couple of computers at which staff processed customers as the came to pick up or return their vehicles. EasyCar also leased a number of spaces within the garage for its fleet of cars. However, because easyCar's vehicles were rented 90% of the time, the number of spaces required for at an average site, which had a fleet of about 150 cars, was only 15-20 spaces (Simpkins, 2002). To speed up the opening of new sites, easyCar had equipped a number of vans with all the needed computer and telephone equipment to run a site (Simpkins, 2002). From an operational perspective, it could open a new location by simply leasing 20 or so spaces in a parking garage, hiring a small staff, driving a van to the location, and adding the location to the company's website. Depending on the fleet size at a location, easyCar typically had only one or two people working at a site at a time.

VEHICLE PICK-UP AND RETURN PROCESSES

Customers arrived to a site to pick up a vehicle within a pre-arranged one hour time period. Each customer selected this time slot when they booked the vehicles. EasyCar adjusted the first day's rental price based on the pick-up time. Customers who picked their cars up earlier in the day or at popular times were charged more compared to customers picking up their cars later in the day or at less busy times. Customers were required to bring a printed copy of their contract, along with the credit card they used to make the booking and identification. Given the low staffing levels, customers occasionally had to wait 30 minutes or more to be processed and receive their vehicles, particularly at peak times of the day. Processing a customer began with the employee accessing the customer's contract on line. If the customer was a new easyCar customer to the site, the basic policies and possible additional charges were briefly explained. The employee then made copies of the customer's identification and credit card and took a digital photo of the customer. The customer was charged an 80 [euro] refundable deposit, signed the contract and was on their way.

All vehicles were rented with more or less empty fuel tanks with the exact level dependent on how much gasoline was left in the vehicle when the previous renter returned it. Customers were provided with a small map of the immediate area around the rental site, showing the location and hours of nearby gas stations. Customers could return vehicles with any amount of gas in them as long as the "low fuel" indicator light in the vehicle was not on. Customers who returned vehicles with the "low fuel" indicator light on were charged a fueling fee of 16 [euro].

Customers were also expected to return the vehicle within a pre-arranged one-hour time period, which they also selected at the time of booking. While customers did not have to worry about refueling the car before returning it, they were expected to thoroughly clean the car. This clean car policy had been implemented in May of 2002 as a way to further reduce the price customers could pay for their vehicle. Prior to this change, all customers paid a fixed preparation fee of 11 [euro] each time they rented a vehicle (up from the 8 [euro] preparation fee when the company started operations in 2000). The new policy reduced this up-front preparation fee to 4 [euro] but required customers to either return the vehicle clean or pay an additional cleaning fee of 16 [euro]. In order to avoid any misunderstanding about what it meant by a clean car, easyCar provided customers with an explicit description of what constituted a clean car, both for the interior and the exterior of the car. This included that it had to be apparent that the exterior of the car had been washed prior to returning the vehicle. The map that customers were provided when they picked up their cars that showed nearby gas stations also showed nearby car washes where they could clean the car before returning it. While easyCar had received some bad press in relation to the policy (Hyde, 2002), 85% of customers returned their vehicles clean as a result of the policy.

When a customer returned the vehicle, an easyCar employee would check to make sure that the vehicle was clean, undamaged and that the low fuel indicator light was not on. The employee would also check the kilometers driven. The customer would then be notified of any additional charges. These charges would be subtracted from the 80 [euro] deposit and the difference refunded to the customer's credit card (or, if additional charges exceeded the 80 [euro] deposit, the customer's credit card would be charged the difference).

PRICING

EasyCar clearly differentiated itself from its competitors with its low price. In addition, pricing also played a key role in easyCar's efforts to achieve high utilization of its fleet of cars. EasyCar advertised prices as low as 5 [euro]/day plus a per rental preparation fee of 4 [euro]. Prices, however, varied by the location and dates of the rental, by when the booking was made, and by what time the car was to be picked up and returned. EasyCar's systems constantly evaluated projected demand and expected utilization at each site, and adjusted price accordingly. Achieving the 5 [euro]/day rate usually required customers to book well in advance, and these rates were typically only available on weekdays. Weekend rates, when booked well in advance, typically started a few euros higher than the weekday rates. As a given rental date approached, however, the price typically went up significantly as easyCar approached 100% fleet utilization for that day. Rates could literally triple overnight if there was sufficient booking activity. Generally, however, easyCar's price was less than half that of its major competitors. EasyCar, unlike most other rental car companies, required customers to pay in full at the time of booking and once a booking was made, it was non-refundable.

EasyCar's base price covered only the core rental of the vehicle--the total price customers paid was in many cases much higher and depended on how the customer reserved, paid for, used and returned the vehicle. EasyCar's price was based on customers booking through the company's website and paying for their rental with their easyMoney credit card. EasyMoney was the easyGroup's credit and financial services company. Customers who chose to book through the company's phone reservation system were charged an additional 0.95 [euro]/minute for the call and those who used other credit cards were charged 5 [euro] extra. All vehicles had to be paid for by a credit or debit card--cash was not accepted. The base rental price allowed customers to drive vehicles 100 kilometers per day--additional kilometers were charged at a rate of 0.12 [euro]/km. In addition, customers were expected to return their cars clean and on-time. Customers who returned cars that did not meet easyCar's standards for clean were charged a 16 [euro]cleaning fee. Those who returned their cars late were immediately charged 120 [euro] and subsequently charged an additional i120 for each subsequent 24 hour period in which the car was not returned. EasyCar explained the high late fee as representing the cost that they would likely incur in providing another vehicle to the next customer. Customers wishing to make any changes to their bookings were also charged a change fee of 16 [euro]. Changes could be made either before the rental started or during the rental period, but were limited to changing the dates, times and location of the rental, and were subject to the prices and vehicle availability at the time the change was being made. If the change resulted in an overall lower price for the rental, however, no refund was provided for the difference.

Beginning in 2003, all customers were also required to purchase loss/damage insurance for an additional charge of 4 [euro]/day that eliminated the customer's liability for loss or damage to the vehicle (excluding damage to the tires or windshield of the vehicle). Through 2002, customers were able to choose whether or not to purchase additional insurance from easyCar to eliminate any financial liability in the event that the rental vehicle was damaged. The cost of this insurance had been i6/day, and approximately 60% of easyCar's customers purchased this optional insurance. Those not purchasing this insurance had either assumed the liability for the first i800 in damages personally, or had their own insurance through some other means (e.g., some credit card companies provide this insurance to their cardholders at no additional charge for short term rentals paid for with the credit card).

EasyCar's web site attempted to make all of these additional charges clear to customers at the time of their booking. EasyCar had received a fair amount of bad press when it first opened for business after many renters complained about having to pay undisclosed charges when they returned their cars (Stanton, 2002). In response, easyCar had revamped its website in an effort to make these charges more transparent to customers and to explain the logic behind many of these charges.

PROMOTION

EasyCar's promotional efforts had through 2002 focused primarily on posters and press advertising. Posters were particularly prevalent in metro systems and bus and train stations in cities were easyCar had operations. All of this advertising focused on easyCar's low price. According to founder Stelios:

"You will never see an advert for an easy company offering an experience--it's about price. If you create expectations you can't live up to then you will ultimately suffer as a result." (The big picture, 2003)

In 2002, easyCar spent [pounds sterling] 1.43 million on such advertising (Marketing week, 2003).

EasyCar also promoted itself by displaying its name, phone number and website address prominently on the doors and rear window of its entire fleet of vehicles, and took advantage of free publicity when the opportunity presented itself. An example of seeking out such publicity occurred when Hertz complained that easyCar's comparative advertising campaign in the Netherlands that featured the line "The best reason to use easyCar.com can be found at hertz.nl" violated Dutch law that required comparative advertising to be exact, not general. In response, Stelios and a group of easyCar employees, dressed in orange boiler suits and with a fleet of easyCar vehicles, protested outside the Hertz Amsterdam office with signs asking "What is Hertz frightened of?" (easyCar news release, 22 April 2002).

In an effort to help reach its goal of quadrupling sales in the next two years, easyCar had recently hired Jennifer Mowat into the new position of commercial director to take over responsibility for easyCar's European marketing. Ms. Mowat had previously been eBay's UK country manager and had recently completed an MBA in Switzerland. Previously, Stelios and easyCar's managing director, Andrew Fitzmaurice, had handled the marketing function themselves (Marketing Week, 2003). As part of this stepped up marketing effort, easyCar also planned to double its advertising budget for 2003, to [pounds sterling] 3 million, and to begin to advertise on television. The television advertising campaign was to feature easyCar's founder, Stelios (Campaigning, 2003).

LEGAL CHALLENGES

Easy car faced several challenges to its approaches. The most significant dealt with a November 2002 ruling made by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that easyCar had to grant customers seven days from the time they made a booking to cancel their booking and receive a full refund. The OFT was a UK governmental agency that was responsible for protecting UK consumers from unfair and/or anti-competitive business practices. The ruling against easyCar was based on The 2000 Consumer Protection Distance Selling Regulations. These regulations stipulated that companies that sell at a distance (e.g., by internet, phone) must provide customers with a seven day cooling-off period, during which time customers can cancel their contracts with the company and receive a full refund. The law exempted accommodation, transportation, catering and leisure service companies from this requirement. The OFT's ruling concluded that easyCar did not qualify as a transportation service company because the consumer had to drive themselves, and as such they were not receiving a transport service, just a car (Macintosh, 2002).

EasyCar had appealed the OFT's decision to the UK High Court on the grounds that it was indeed a transportation service company and was entitled to an exemption from this requirement. EasyCar was hopeful that it would eventually win this legal challenge. EasyCar had argued that this ruling would destroy the company's book-early-pay-less philosophy and could lead to a tripling of prices (Marketing week, 2003). Chairman Stelios was quoted as saying:

"It is very serious. My fear is that as soon as we put in the seven-day cooling off periods our utilization rate will fall from 90% to 65%. That's the difference between a profitable company and an unprofitable one." (Macintosh, 2002)

EasyCar was also concerned that prolonged legal action on this point could interfere with its plans for a 2004 IPO.

OFT, for its part, had also applied to the UK High Court for an injunction to make the company comply with the ruling. Other rental car companies were generally unconcerned about the ruling, as few offered big discounts for early bookings or non-refundable bookings (Macintosh, 2002).

EasyCar's new policy of posting the pictures of customers whose cars were 15 days or more overdue was also drawing legal criticism. EasyCar had recently received public warnings from lawyers that this new policy might violate data protection, libel, privacy, confidentiality and human rights laws (Sherwood & Wendlandt, 2002). Of particular concern to some lawyers was the possibility that easyCar might post the wrong person's picture, given the large number of customers the company dealt with (Sherwood & Wendlandt, 2002). Such a mistake could open the company to costly libel suits. The policy of posting the pictures of overdue customers on the easyCar website, initiated in November of 2002, was designed to reduce the losses associated with customers renting a vehicle and never returning it. The costs were significant, according to Stelios:

"These cars are expensive, [pounds sterling] 15,000 each, and we have 6000 of them. At any given time we are looking for as many as several tens which are overdue. If we don't get one back, it's a write-off. We are writing off an entire car, and its uninsurable." (e-business, 2002)

Stelios was also convinced of the legality of the new policy. In a letter to the editor responding to the legal concerns raised in the press, Stelios said:

"From a legal perspective, we have been entirely factual and objective and are merely reporting the details of the overdue car and the person who collected it. In addition, our policy is made very clear in our terms and conditions and the photo is taken both overtly and with the consent of the customer.... I estimate the total cost of overdue cars to be 5% of total easyCar costs, or 50p on every car rental day for all customers. In 2004, when I intend to float easyCar, this cost will amount to [pounds sterling] 5 million unless we can reduce our quantity of overdue cars." (Haij-Ioannou, 2002)

In the past, easyCar had simply provided pictures to police when a rental was 15 or more days overdue. It was hoped that posting the picture would both discourage drivers from not returning vehicles and shame those drivers who currently had overdue cars into returning them. In fact, the first person who easyCar posted to their website did indeed return his car 2 days later. The vehicle was 29 days late (Hookham, 2002).

THE FUTURE

At the end of 2002, Stelios had stepped down as the CEO of EasyJet so that he could devote more of his time to the other easyGroup companies, including easyCar. He had three priorities for the new year. One was to turn around the money losing EasyInternetCafe business, which Stelios had described as "the worst mistake of my career" (Bentley, 2002). The 22 store chain had lost [pounds sterling] 80 million in the last two years. A second was to oversee the planned launch of another new easyGroup business, easyCinema, in the spring of 2003. And the third was to oversee the rapid expansion of the easyCar chain so that it would be ready for an initial public offering in the second half of 2004.

REFERENCES

Avis Europe plc (2002). Annual Report. Retrieved 16 August, 2004 from http://ir.avis-europe.com/avis/reports.

Bentley, S. (2002, 24 December). The worst mistake of my career, by Stelios, Financial Times, 13.

Burt, T. (2002, 30 April). EasyCar agrees to deal with Vauxhall, Financial Times, 24.

Campaigning: easyGroup appoints Publicis for easyCar TV advertising brief (2003, 31 January). Financial Times Information Limited.

Click to fly (2004, 13 May). The Economist.

easyCar.com news release (2002, 2 May). easyCar selects the 'clean your own car' Vauxhall Corsa, Retrieved 15 January 2003 from http://www.easygroup.co.uk/easyCar/news/main.html.

easyCar.com news release (2000, 1 March). easyRentacar uses exclusively Mercedes A-class, Retrieved 15 January 2003 from http://www.easygroup.co.uk/easyCar/news/main.html.

easyCar.com news release (2002, 22 April). Stelios brings the Hertz battle to Amsterdam, Retrieved 15 January 2003 from http://www.easygroup.co.uk/easyCar/news/main.html.

easyCar.com website page "About Us", Retrieved 6 March 2003, from http://www.easycar.com/eng/siteinfo/aboutus.asp.

easyCar set to shake up German car rental market (2002, 22 February). European Intelligence Wire.

e-business: Internet fraudsters fail to steal Potter movie's magic & other news (2002, 19 November). Financial Times Information Limited.

Felsted, A. (2002, 11 February), easyCar courts Clio for rental fleet, Financial Times, 26.

Haji-Ioannou, S. (2002, 16 November). Letters to the Editor: Costly effect of late car return, Financial Times, 10.

Hodgson, N. (2002, 24 September). Stelios plans easycar float, Liverpool Echo, 15.

Hookham, M. (2002, 14 November). How Stelios nets return of his cars, Daily Post (Liverpool, UK), 21.

Hyde, J. (2002, 7 July). Travel View: Clearing up on the extras, The

Observer (UK), 8.

Macintosh, J. (2002, 22 November). EasyCar sues OFT amid threat to planned flotation, Financial Times, 4.

Marketing: Former eBay UK chief lands top easyCar position (2003, 9 January). Financial Times Information Limited.

Marketing Week: Don't write off the car rental industry (2002, 26 September). Financial Times Information Limited.

Marketing Week: easyCar appoints head of European marketing (2003, 9 January). Financial Times Information Limited.

Sherwood, B. & Wendlandt, A. (2002, 14 November). easyCar may be in difficulty over naming ploy, Financial Times, 2.

Simpkins, E. (2002, 15 December). Stelios isn't taking it easy. The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 22-23.

Stanton, J. (2002, 26 November). The empire that's easy money," Edinburgh Evening News, 14.

The big picture--An interview with Stelios (2003, 16 March). The Sunday Herald (UK), 21-22.

John J. Lawrence, University of Idaho & Instituto de Empresa Luis Solis, Instituto de Empresa

Table 1: Information on easyCar's Major European Competitors

 easyCar Avis Europe

Number of Rental 46 3100
Outlets

2002 Fleet Size 7,000 120,000

Number of Countries 5 107

Largest Market U.K. France

Who Owns Company EasyGroup/ D'Ieteren (Belgium)
 Stelios is majority
 Haji-Ioannou shareholder

European Revenues 41 million [euro] 1.25 billion [euro]

Company Website www.easycar.com www.avis-europe.com

 Europcar Hertz

Number of Rental 2,650 7,000
Outlets

2002 Fleet Size 220,000 700,000

Number of Countries 118 150

Largest Market France U.S.

Who Owns Company Volkswagen AG Ford Motor
 Company

European Revenues 1.12 billion [euro] 910 million [euro]
Company Website www.europcar.com www.hertz.com

 Sixt

Number of Rental 1,250
Outlets

2002 Fleet Size 46,700

Number of Countries 50

Largest Market Germany

Who Owns Company Publicly
 Traded

European Revenues 600 million [euro]

Company Website ag.sixt.com

Source: Information in this table came from each company's website and
on-line annual reports. European revenues are for vehicle rental in
Europe and are estimated based on market share estimates for 2001 from
Avis Europe's 2002 Annual Report (Avis-Europe plc, 2002).

Table 2: easyCar Locations in January, 2003

 Number Near an
Country City Number Airport

France Nice 1 1
France Paris 8 0
Netherlands Amsterdam 3 1
Spain Barcelona 2 0
Spain Madrid 2 0
Spain Majorca 1 1
Spain Malagra 1 1
Switzerland Geneva 1 1
UK Birmingham 2 0
UK Bromley 1 0
UK Croydon 1 1
UK Glasgow 2 1
UK Kingston-Upon-Thames 1 0
UK Liverpool 2 1
UK London 15 0
UK Manchester 2 1
UK Waterford 1 0
Total 17 Cities 46 9

Source: www.easyCar.com, January, 2003