City Car Club speeds to WhizzGo deal
YORKSHIRE pay-as-you-go car rental company WhizzGo has been bought by rival City Car Club, which launched an operation in the region earlier this year, to form the UK’s largest national network of hourly rental cars.
City Car Club plans to double the size of its fleet to 1,000 cars within two years and the acquisition has created a combined business with 16,000 members and annual turnover of £5m.
Leeds-based WhizzGo’s members will now have access to a network of 500 cars across 15 UK cities.
WhizzGo’s fleet is to be re-branded as City Car Club and WhizzGo members will immediately transfer to City Car Club’s technology platform.
The company now has operations in Leeds, London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, York, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bristol, Bath, Huddersfield, Norwich, Birmingham, and Southampton with more in the pipeline.
City Car Club, which also operates a pay-as-you-go rental scheme, launched in Huddersfield in June.
Established in 2001, City Car Club operated in eight cities prior to the acquisition and saw an 80% expansion in its membership base in 2008 and a further 55% growth in the first half of this year as people look to rent cars to use instead of buying them and try to improve their green credentials.
Members of the club have 24-hour access to cars which are parked on the street in convenient locations and can be booked by the hour by both residents and business.
WhizzGo, which was established in Leeds in 2004 in partnership with Leeds City Council, has 32 cars in operation in the Yorkshire city.
City Car Club’s chief executive, James Finlayson, said: “The acquisition of WhizzGo was a key strategic move for us and one that we have been looking to make for some time.”
Mr Finlayson said the deal allowed City Car Club to expand its corporate membership base, a key growth area identified by the business.
He added: “WhizzGo has been very successful at achieving a rich mix of corporate members in Leeds, allowing them to maximise utilisation of cars.
“This is an area we are keen to develop further across the combined business and this acquisition allows us to kick-start that process.”
City Car Club and WhizzGo’s business models run on a similar basis
Cars are parked in designated parking bays and, once a booking is made, members gain access with their smart enabled, membership card.
Once in the car, members enter their PIN into the in-car computer. Journeys are itemised and sent out on a monthly statement.
City Car Club had its accounts department based in Huddersfield Media Centre and its head office is in London, but its Huddersfield staff will relocate to Leeds following the deal.
