KINGSTON, Jamaica — A consortium of local and overseas-based investors, today, Wednesday (April 20) announced the acquisition of global online car rental company, Car Rental 8.com.

The acquisition cost was not shared. Brokered by Mayberry Investments Ltd, which acted as financial advisor to the group, lead investor is said to be Yoni Epstein, Chief Executive Officer of itel-BPO Solutions who along with partners including Tony Davis, former vice president of International Sales at the Dollar Thrifty Group, acquired an 85 per cent stake.

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Car Rental 8.com is an online car rental brokerage industry offering car rental services in 125 Countries serving 17,000 locations. Customers book car agencies online including Hertz, Sixt, Avis, Dollar, Thrifty, Alamo, Enterprise, National, Budget, EuropCar and Fox Rent-A-Car for domestic and international travel.

Epstein indicated in a related release that currently, Car Rental 8.com makes more than 65,000 bookings annually with 80 per cent of the business coming from US domestic travel and the remaining 20 per cent via inbound to the US. The new partners have committed to growing the company a further — pledging to grow it by 25 per cent per annum, he stated.

Epstein commented in the release, “Car Rental 8.com is a dream company; it has a technological platform that is built for speed and scale. Furthermore, the rental car industry is worth US$51 billion and has an expected CAGR of 13 per cent. So if you take those factors, add a team that has spent over 25 years in the industry, robust technology, an asset light business model, call centre experience and the opportunity to create more jobs in Jamaica; it’s a dream investment.”

Epstein’s Itel-BPO currently manages 50 per cent of Car Rental 8’s sales and customer service from Jamaica, he indicated.

Tony Davis has been named CEO and will manage day-to-day operations from its corporate head office in Tampa with Epstein to serve as the company’s chairman.

He said the reason for the acquisition was a strategic one, based on the company’s existing model of excellent service. 

“Knowing Car Rental 8’s reputation of delivering both great value and quality service to customers throughout the world is what attracted us to the business from the start. We will bring over 50 years of hospitality experience, a new energy and enthusiasm to this already well respected brand and take it new heights,” he was quoted as saying.

Yves Boyer, founder of the company who remains a partner expressed hope that new leadership will grow the business. “As the founder of Car Rental 8.com, I am excited and confident that these new investors, under Tony’s leadership as CEO, will be able to scale up the business drastically and rapidly,” he said.

The goal of the company Epstein said is, “To open up the Caribbean market inbound to the US as well as the Latin American market to the US, US to UK, UK to US, Europe to Europe and grow the Asia to Hawaii market too.”

The partners indicate that their market — the rental car industry — is currently estimated at US$51billion and is expected to double by the year 2020.