Avis Rent a Car System

Infobox_Company
company_name = Avis Rent A Car
company_
company_type = Subsidiary
company_slogan = "We Try Harder."
foundation = flagicon|U.S. Detroit, Michigan (1946)
founder = Warren Avis
location = flagicon|U.S. Parsippany, New Jersey
locations = ~4900+ (as of 2007)
area_served = Worldwide
key_people = Ronald L. Nelson
(Chairman) & (CEO)
F. Robert Salerno
(President), (COO) & (Director)
David B. Wyshner
(CFO) & (Executive Vice President)
industry = Car rental
num_employees = 30,000 ("2008")
market c
US$ 1.28 Billion ("2008")
owner = Avis Budget Group
revenue = profit US$ 5.986 Billion ("2007")
operating_income = loss US$ -992 Million ("2007")
net_income = profit US$ -916 Million ("2007")
assets = decrease US$ 12.474 Billion ("2007")
equity = decrease US$ 1.465 Billion ("2007")
homepage = [http://www.avis.com Avis.com]

Avis Rent A Car System, LLC is a car rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey USA. Avis, Budget Rent a Car and Budget Truck Rental are all units of Avis Budget Group.

Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, India, Australia and New Zealand. In other parts of the world, the Avis brand is operated by Avis Europe plc, a separate company which licenses the Avis brand from Avis Budget Group. All together, Avis currently has over 4000 branch offices worldwide. Avis is one of the largest car rental agencies in the world.

The company primarily rents General Motors (GM) vehicles, such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Saturn, within the United States, though some locations feature other popular non-GM brands, such as Hyundai or Kia.

Avis is a leading rental car provider to the commercial segment serving business travelers at major airports around the world, and to leisure travelers at off-airport locations; many of the off-airport locations (at least in the USA) are franchised operations rather than company owned and operated, as is the case with most airport locations.

History

The company was founded in 1946 with 3 cars at Willow Run Airport"Business Superbrands", Editor: Marcel Knobil, Author James Curtis (2000), Superbrands Ltd. ISBN 0-9528153-4-6, p. 18.] , Detroit by Warren Avis (b.1915, d. April 24, 2007). It established branch operations across the U.S. over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953 and by its tenth anniversary in 1956 had opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Their corporate motto is "We Try Harder." It was adopted in 1962 [http://www.avis.com/AvisWeb/JSP/global/en/aboutavis/press_room/2003-022.jsp] to make a more positive reference of Avis' status as the second largest car rental company in the U.S., at the expense of its larger competitor The Hertz Corporation. In 1981, the company instituted its system of vehicle tracking, that was coincidentally named Advanced Vehicle Identification System, or "AVIS".

Avis has been owned by a number of other companies over the years, along with several periods of being a public company. These include:
*1962 - Investment group Lazard Freres
*1965 - ITT Corporation
*1977 - Norton Simon
*1983 - Esmark
*1984 - Beatrice
*1986 - Investment firm Wesray Capital
*1996 - HFS Corporation
*2001 - Cendant
*2006 - Avis Budget Group

Founder Warren Avis died on April 24, 2007 at the age of 91. [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9814473]

References

External links

* [http://www.avis.com Avis Global Homepage]
* [http://www.carrentaldir.com/history-of-avis-rent-a-car.html History of Avis Rent a Car]