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Berggruen Holdings unveils their Indian Business Leaders
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| L-R) Rajiv Sethi, CEO, Equipment Rentals; SP Balasubramanian, CEO, Berggruen Car Rentals; Praveen Roy, CEO, UEI - Global; Nicolas Berggruen, Founder, Berggruen Holdings (BH); Kabir Kewalramani, Founding Director, BH Advisors; Ram, CEO, Properties; Sanjay Sethi, CEO, Keys |
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Berggruen Holdings forays into car rental business
Invests USD 300 million for its Indian businesses
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Berggruen Holdings, the parent company of Berggruen Hotels Pvt.Ltd., is entering the car rental business with the launch of its subsidiary, Berggruen Car Rentals Pvt.Ltd. by this month-end in India. The company is investing USD 10 million for the B2C car rentals and another USD 10 million for the B2B rental services that will be made available by Berggruen Car Rentals under the 'Car Club' brand. "We will initially offer four products - Chauffer Drive, Self Drive, Car Lease and Radio Taxi Service in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi", informed S.P Balasubramanian, CEO, Car Club. The company plans to extend its services to about 29 cities across India before 2008-end.
The company is targeting the business and corporate clients for its car rental services and will start operations with a fleet of about 200 cars. "The car rental market in India is estimated to be about Rs 3,000 crore per annum and if we manage to tap about 10 per cent of the market in the next two to three years, we would be achieving our target," said Balasubramanian.
He further said that the company will have premium and economy vehicles in its fleet. "While currently there is a growing demand for economy cars in India, we believe that there will be a demand for premium services in the future. Hence, we want to cater to both the categories," explained Balasubramanian. Car Club is considering purchasing Corolla cars for the premium category and Ford cars for the economy category services.
Berggruen Holdings is investing a total of USD 300 million in its Indian businesses. Of this, it will be investing USD 12 million over the next three years for the educational venture - UEI (United Educational Institutes) Global. The division's first institute was launched last month in New Delhi and five more branches are slated to become operational in Noida, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Pune by December, 2007. The company is aiming to set-up 50 branches across the country by 2010. It is also considering an investment of USD 10 million in the real estate sector and will look at Mumbai, Surat, NCR (National Capital Region) and cities in South India for the same. |
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Car Club to launch Self Drive services in December '07
To introduce loyalty programme for travel agents
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Car Club, a subsidiary of Berggruen Holdings, is all set to commence self drive rental service in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi in December this year and by January, 2008; it plans to introduce the service in Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi. In a bid to promote the service in the Indian market, the company will be introducing loyalty program by way of 'privilege cards' for the travel agents in the country.
At present, the company is in talks with tour operators for introducing the loyalty program for the travel trade in India. The gold, silver and platinum privilege cards are slated to offer travel agents the service at discounted rates. Besides, Car Club is in talks with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to deploy its self drive service at the international and domestic airports.
According to SP Balasubramanian, CEO, Car Club, the company will start the self drive service with a fleet of 100 cars and then, by 2010, it will look to handle 1,000 cars. "There is definitely scope for growth for the self drive segment in the Indian car rental market. In North America, about 75,000 cars are rented out for self drive on a daily basis, while the corresponding figure for the Indian market is a mere 150. With the launch of our self drive service, we hope to augment the figures for the Indian market," he offered.
Apart from launching self-drive service, the company is also looking to increase its fleet size under the chauffeur drive service by adding 500 cars to its current fleet of 200 cars by March, 2008. The cars in the chauffeur drive service will range from the mid-sized segment to SUV and C+ segment and will be offered for charges ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 25,000 a day. The company is in discussions with Ford Motor Company and Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) vis-à-vis its fleet for the chauffeur drive, as well as proposed self drive services. |
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| Long Drive with Car Club |
Car Club in association with Tourism Malaysia sponsored Golf Tournament named ‘Golf Day’ in Delhi and Pune recently. The aim was to tap corporate sector through these series of tournaments from the metro cities. The tournament will be held in Bangalore this April and the sponsors are planning to organize this every year. Other sponsors were Kotak Mahindra Bank and Titliest.
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