Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Continues Successful Acquisition Program
Company Acquires Franchise Operation at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
TULSA, Okla., May 31 -- Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. today announced the acquisition of the Dollar Rent A Car franchise operation serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The acquisition adds approximately 500 vehicles to the Company's corporate fleet. Terms of the transaction, effective June 1, were not disclosed.
The franchise operation was sold by Preferred Car Rental LLC., operated by Joanne and Tom Kieffer. Preferred has been a successful franchisee in the Dollar Rent A Car system since 1992, and has won Dollar's President Cup award for the past seven years which honors the Dollar location with the top performance in revenue growth and customer service.
"Ranked as one of the top 25 largest airport car rental markets in the United States, Minneapolis-St. Paul is an exciting addition to our corporate operations," Jay Foley, Senior Executive Vice President - Corporate Operations, said. "With its abundance of major attractions including museums, theatres, professional sports and water-based activities, the Twin Cities area has become a thriving destination. In 2005, the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport served a record 37 million passengers and we look forward to continuing to provide value-seeking car rental customers with our outstanding service and quality products."
"This acquisition marks another milestone in the Company's growth strategy to acquire locations in the top 75 U.S. airports and operate them corporately. We will continue to pursue these acquisitions on an opportunistic basis," Foley said. Since announcing its acquisition strategy in early 2003, DTG has successfully acquired 56 key U.S. and Canadian markets and opened 11 new Greenfield locations adding approximately 31,000 vehicles on an annualized basis to the Company's rental fleet.
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. is a Fortune 1000 Company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Driven by the mission "Value Every Time," the Company's brands, Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental, serve value- conscious travelers in approximately 70 countries. Dollar and Thrifty have approximately 1,600 corporate and franchised worldwide locations including over 800 in the United States and Canada. The Dollar or Thrifty brands operate in virtually all of the top U.S. airport markets; both brands operate in all of the top Canadian airport markets. The Company's more than 8,500 employees are located mainly in North America, but global service capabilities exist through an expanding international franchise network. For additional information, visit http://www.dtag.com/ .
Some of the statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. believes such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and certain factors could cause results to differ materially from current expectations. These factors include: price and product competition; access to reservation distribution channels; economic and competitive conditions in markets and countries where the companies' customers reside and where the companies and their franchisees operate; natural hazards or catastrophes; incidents of terrorism; airline travel patterns; changes in capital availability or cost; costs and other terms related to the acquisition and disposition of automobiles; systems or communications failures; costs of conducting business and changes in structure or operations; and certain regulatory and environmental matters and litigation risks. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties, among others, materialize, actual results could vary from those estimated, anticipated or projected. Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward- looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time.
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