Carrentals.co.uk prepares for European roll-out, targets £23m turnover

Published: 20 Mar 2008

Price comparison site Carrentals.co.uk has announced that Gareth Robinson will take on the role of Managing Director, responsible for the strategic development and direction of the brand as it looks to achieve £23m turnover by January 2009.

Carrentals.co.uk is a CPA (cost per acquisition) price comparison site.

"Since switching to a comparison site at the start of 2007 we've seen a three-fold increase in business, and this shows no signs of slowing down," said Robinson. "Based on this success we're rolling out the Carrentals.co.uk format to other European countries over the next 12 months. Germany has already launched and is performing well, and with the new corporate structure in place this will support our growth in the UK and beyond."

Doug Scott now takes on the role of Director of Online Strategy, responsible for the company's online presence across its target markets, while Andrew Stevens continues as Financial Director.

The company has also strengthened its team with new appointments at its offices in Wales and Lichfield; Paul Humphreys joins from Casino.com, where he was Head of Search Engine Optimisation, and will work with Doug Scott to build the brand's online profile, while Andy Mayer, who joined at the end of 2007, will be Project Manager for the expansion plans.

Helen Young also joins the Wales office from the property market, and will provide marketing support to Carrentals.co.uk and sister site Self-Catering-Breaks.com, which offers property rentals around the World. Debbie Sowden and Claire Hayes will continue to manage all supplier relationships. The new appointments take the Carrentals.co.uk team to 22, together with around 60 sub-contractors.

Companies compared on the site include Ebookers, Holiday Autos, Opodo, EasyCar, Budget and their own Carrentals.co.uk prices.

Comments

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tromba said on 20 Mar 08:

I'm impressed. Ordinarily, I don't believe half of what I read about some new online commerce company that claims to have a product or service that will do everything faster, cheaper and better and everybody involved will make more money.

With that said, I decided to test Carrentals with a two-day rental at CDG next week. I didn't actually book, and aborted the process just before the end.

The search and book process are easy to follow with not a lot of distractions along the way. There was a large number of cars offered in various sizes and from various companies. That's all very good, but what struck me was the speed of the search -- much, much faster than any other travel related web search I have tried.

Maybe this speed was just a fluke for the day. But, it looks to me like this company has focused on search speed and the absence of clutter on its pages -- and is actually doing what they claim in the marketing announcements and press releases.

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