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Conversations From the Corner Office
COMPANY HISTORY
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Jack Crawford Taylor founded St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1957, then known as Executive Leasing Company. Earlier, while working as a salesman at a Cadillac dealership, he'd heard about a business in Chicago that leased Cadillacs and was struck by the business potential.
Taylor lobbied his boss to set up a leasing business at the dealership. He sweetened the proposal by offering to take a 50 percent pay cut for a 25 percent share in the new business. His boss agreed, and Executive Leasing Company debuted with seven cars. The business initially focused on long-term leasing, but Taylor reasoned the best way to grow was through short-term leases. Hertz and Avis were already established in the fledgling airport rental market. So Taylor focused instead a different niche: short-term leases through insurance adjusters for people whose cars had been damaged or stolen. The largely untapped market allowed the company to offer lower rates than rival companies focused on airports.
By 1969, expansion to neighboring states forced the company to change its name to avoid duplication with other businesses with the "Executive" name. The new name, Enterprise, was a tribute to one of the aircraft carriers Taylor flew from as a fighter pilot during World War II.
Over the next several years, nationwide expansion continued through a strategy in which branches would grow to no more than 150 cars. Once the limit was reached, a new branch was opened a few miles away. In 1980s, Jack Taylor's son, Andrew, was named president of the company, and would eventually take on the positions of chief executive officer and chairman.
By 1992, the company operated in nearly all of the nation's top 100 markets, and for the first time that year, it surpassed $1 billion in revenue. By 1996, Enterprise passed Hertz as the number one car rental company in North America in terms of fleet size and number of locations.
With this year's acquisition of the National and Alamo brands, Enterprise Rent-A-Car now has more than a million cars and 7,000 offices in North America and Europe.
RELATED LINKS
CHAIRMAN AND CEO ANDREW TAYLOR
CORPORATE WEBSITE: Enterprise Rent-A-Car
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