Car hire firm buys up rival; EXPANSION: Rental company's fleet to double in size.Byline: Tom Scotney A COMPANY that rents out cars by the hour is set to double in size in Birmingham after acquiring a rival. The City Car Club, which already has 300 members in Birmingham, has become the largest national network of short-term car renters after buying rival WhizzGo. The firm positions itself as a cheap and environmentallyfriendly alternative to owning a car. It says business has been up since the credit crunch Credit Crunch An economic condition whereby investment capital is difficult to obtain. Banks and investors become weary of lending funds to corporations thereby driving up the price of debt products for borrowers. took hold as people started to look to cut their outgoings. Both companies previously operated in Birmingham, but City Car Club said the acquisition would leave it free to invest in the local network. It now has four cars available to rent in the city, with 300 people signed up to the scheme. It rents cars from Clive Passage, Brindleyplace, Aston University Outside:
Aston University has both standard and en-suite accommodation on campus. and Kings Heath Kings Heath is a suburb of Birmingham, England, three miles south of the city centre. It is the next 'village' south from Moseley on the Alcester Road. The central shopping area runs along the High Street and Alcester Road, and the shops include branches of national chain stores, in Birmingham, plus 500 more from a network of 15 cities across the UK. The firm said it was aiming to double the number of people in Birmingham involved in the car club, and would be expanding the fleet of cars "within the year" to cope with demand. It said it is planning to put pounds 1.1 million into the Birmingham branch of the business. City Car Club chief executive James Finlayson For the comic actor of the 1920s and '30s, see . James Finlayson (1771-1852) was a Scottish Quaker who, in effect, took the Industrial Revolution to Tampere, Finland. James Finlayson was born 1771 in Glasgow, Scotland and became a self-trained engineer. said: "We are planning to rapidly expand the service in Birmingham to keep up with the very high demand in the city. ''With a thriving business community, as well as residential developments in the city centre, it has the perfect mix to allow us to expand significantly in the next five years. ''The acquisition of WhizzGo was a key strategic move for us and one we have been looking to make for some time." The purchase of WhizzGo by City Car Club is the first major consolidation within the UK car club market. CAPTION(S): Buoyant: James Finlayson, chief executive of City Car Club. |
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