IN the next three months, ATL Automotive will become a major player in the rental car sector and operate as Enterprise Jamaica, Alamo Jamaica and National Jamaica.

The new initiative — courtesy of a recently inked franchise deal with American company Enterprise Holdings — will see the dealership initially hiring 50 more personnel. “We’ll be enjoying the strength of the world’s leading car rental brands and all of the great benefits that it brings,” Adam Stewart, CEO of Sandals Resort International and ATL Group, told Auto yesterday. “It’s a great opportunity for the automotive company because it’ll obviously mean selling units to the rental companies for their customers.

We’ll be offering a wide range of vehicles. Honda is an obvious choice because of its safety, affordability, reliability and their industry-leading resale value, which is important to the car rental business.

A by-product of that will be plenty of pre-owned cars coming into the market that you know have been regularly serviced by factory- trained technicians. We’ll be offering CR-V, HR-V, City and Accord. You might even see a 3, 5 or 7 series BMW! “When a global company of Enterprise’s size and standing trust you to represent them, the same way Honda, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and MINI do, it’s very humbling and tells you you’re doing something right.

They protect their brand fiercely, and rightly so, and it says to us: ‘We trust you to offer the same high levels of quality, consistency and customer service we demand anywhere in the world.’ We’re inspired to be held to those standards because we hold ourselves to the same standards already.

We are in awe of the entire corporate culture of Enterprise and their franchising team; they’ve been fantastic to work with and we thank them for their trust and confidence,” he continued. Headquartered in Missouri, Enterprise Holdings is the parent company of car rental companies Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent a Car, and Enterprise CarShare.

The company boasts 9,000 fully staffed neighbourhood and airport locations with services in 80 countries. Its revenues totalled US$19.4 billion last year. Stewart, son of hotel mogul Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, explained the decision for entering in this market. “We believe this will have a hugely positive impact on the country.

Enterprise’s global distribution system means we’re boosting new, incremental business with people looking to hire cars who may not have considered it before. It’ll literally push the tourism dollar everywhere — on and off the beaten track. Consider this: we have a beautiful country with impressive new roads and highways, then we have a generation of travellers who want to go out and explore for themselves as well as a diaspora of millions who want to get around and enjoy wonderful service when they come home. It’s a wonderful opportunity,” he said. He said his company was ideally suited to undertake the project.

“It’s a wonderful fit for us on many levels. Firstly, from a business stand point, it made perfect sense to bring the world’s leading rental brands all under one roof.

Consumers, specifically local and visiting millennials, are looking more and more into experiences.

They’re more likely to jump into a rental car and explore on their own than ever before. From a personal point of view, providing people to visit every single inch of our company has huge benefits — social and economic. We know how beautiful our country is, but some do not.

We believe this will tempt more and more visitors to our island to venture out and take those wonderful experiences home. Lastly, we’re an automotive company and we offer the best brands and have the best facilities operated by the most highly trained service technicians on the island. It’s a genuine no-brainer; great for our company, great for Jamaica,” he said. Currently, ATL Automotive is looking at locations serving both airports, which are centrally located for customers in Montego Bay and Kingston.

“As you can imagine, there are numerous factors to take into consideration, not least the location set-ups, car fleet, training, systems, and so on.

We’re currently in the final throes of planning,” said Stewart. This is not the first time Stewart has sought opportunities outside the new car segment. In 2013, the CEO entered the pre-owned segment with the opening of a Hagley Park Road branch in Kingston.

At the time, he said he was removing the uncertainty from the used-car business which was plagued by age discrepancy issues. It was estimated that between 3,000 and 6,000 vehicles may have been involved in that mix-up. “We’re obviously new to the car rental business, but we see the opportunities.

We want visitors to Jamaica to experience it all, so there is an opportunity to better facilitate that by enhancing our road signage and enabling those less familiar with our roads to reach those hidden gems we want them to see. It’s a great chance for the private and public sectors to combine for the benefit of us all,” Stewart added.