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HERTZ INTERVIEW
and projects are in play to optimise the business.
We’re trying to expand the specialty businesses,
such as power generation, and will continue to
grow those. We’ve added bungalows [portable
accommodation].” HERC recently established its
fifth Energy Services power rental operation in the
country, located in Bordeaux.
She says she is proud of the European team,
which is led by Jay Early, HERC’s vice president
for the international businesses; “They have been
making great progress and have levels of KPI [Key
performance Indicators] that they thought they
could never do, in some of the measures.
“There’s a positive explosion of energy going on in
Europe. Once we get our business to the level we set
in the plan, which I think is coming soon, we’ll look at
other opportunities…I think you’ll be reading news
from us, maybe even during next year [2014] and
2015, on things that are going on in Europe.”
Of course, for HERC, the choice in entering
international markets is whether to do it itself –
corporately – or through a franchise partner, in some
cases existing car franchise holders. So, for example,
new HERC operations in Mongolia and Chile – both
areas with expanding mining and natural resource
sectors – are being undertaken through franchises.
Franchises, of course, make it possible to enter a
market without the capital investment required of a
corporate initiative.
Wouldn’t Australia be a natural candidate?
“Australia is very saturated”, she explains, “We
did look but the EBITDA multiples they wanted [for
acquisitions] were pretty high, so that didn’t make
financial sense. We looked at greenfield as well, but
the timing isn’t right, as it’s into a bit of a downturn.”
She says HERC is still having a dialogue with Hertz’s
Australian car rental franchise partner.
India and South Africa remain on HERC’s ‘potential’
list, but China and Saudi Arabia are the two markets
where it has decided to go on its own. “We see that
the China market will be expanding on an ongoing
basis…we are watching China carefully, and we’re
looking at multiple growth strategies. We are doing a
lot to diversify the customer base there.”
With international revenues still representing only
10% of revenues,
IRN
asks if a target of 25% within
five years would be realistic. “We want [international]
to be more”, says Ms Boyd in response, “Franchises
don’t really roll up to us, that kind of figure [the
25%] would take a lot of corporate activity. We will
do some, but not a ton.”
Of course, the perennial question for any HERC
president is whether Hertz Corp is committed to
owning it, with the most recent speculation about
a HERC sell-off sparked in late December by a
Financial Times
story. Ms Boyd, speaking before the
latest bout of speculation, opts not to add to what
she calls the “constant chatter”.
She prefers to highlight her pleasure at being in
charge at HERC, at visiting the individual depots –
180 of the 350 locations seen so far - and in being
“Australia is very saturated. We did look but the EBITDA
multiples they wanted [for acquisitions] were pretty
high, so that didn’t make financial sense. We looked at
greenfield as well, but the timing isn’t right, as it’s into
a bit of a downturn.”
A Komatsu excavator in HERC’s fleet working on post Hurricane
sandy recovery efforts.
Hertz has been investing in
its power rental operation
in France and now has five
Energy Solutions branches in
the country.
involved with an engineering and equipment
business. She spent thirty years with vehicle
component suppliers Vickers and Tenneco before
joining Hertz in 2007.
“It’s like full circle for me. I’ve always been in the
trenches, since I was a kid”, she says, “It’s good to be
back in the trenches.”
IRN
