Gold Coast Family Car Rentals celebrates its 17th anniversary. The next step for them will be to expand their franchise, helping consumers to get the fairest possible deal on car rental.
“Consumer-Friendly” Award Winning Car Rental Business Celebrates 17th Anniversary
Gold Coast, October 2018: As Gold Coast Family Car Rentals celebrates its 17th anniversary, entrepreneur Darryl Essington-Wilson looks back on a varied career. Although this includes surf lifesaving, working as an executive in corporate concerns, and business consulting, he considers everything he’s done in the last fifty or more years as a career path which has led to his current position.
His stint as a surf-lifesaver may be decades in the past, but Essington-Wilson still radiates energy and an eagerness to help others. This would have stood him in good stead through a successful career in the corporate world. After completing his accountancy studies, the motor vehicle industry was quick to recruit the promising young candidate and so his career journey began.
Big Business Experience and Positive Attitude
“My first position was with Datsun. It became Nissan and we also took on the NSW/ACT distributorship for BMW motor vehicles. Within this environment I gained extensive experience in franchising, helping to establish a network of 95 automotive dealerships. My direct responsibilities included the establishment of, and CEO responsibility for, our own motor finance company, our own motor insurance company and our own car rental company,” says Essington-Wilson.
His background is part of the reason why Gold Coast Family Car Rentals is so successful. Indeed, although it is not a large enterprise, it recently embarked on franchising, and its first franchisee has already launched operations in the Northern Beaches area.
As for his experience in the insurance industry, it has placed Essington-Wilson in a position where he has an eye for best-practice. His skill in this area has led Gold Coast Family Car Rentals to offer the lowest cost cover on vehicle insurance coupled with what Essington-Wilson believes is the most comprehensive excess-reducing insurance cover in the car rental industry today.
“I analysed the most comprehensive cover that other car rental companies can offer,” he says, “and our package outperformed all competitors’ in terms of both price and scope. All of this contributes to our competitive advantage which can be summed up as lowest prices, service that matches or exceeds that of other companies, and absolute fairness towards the consumers who do business with us.”
17 Years of Family Business
After spending several years as a popular business consultant and speaker, Essington-Wilson decided it was time for change: “I wanted a business that would continue in my absence, and since 2005, our family has been able to travel extensively - often with people we first met as rental car customers,” he says.
However, like other entrepreneurs, Essington-Wilson had to take risks before achieving his goal. “In 2001, we purchased a house and two small car rental companies (all on the same day) on the Gold Coast and merged them into a single site operation,” he explains. “We are now a mid-sized operation with around 100 cars in our fleet and have been awarded Gold Star status as having Australia's most "Consumer Friendly" rental terms and conditions.”
Working Towards an Even More Exciting Future
The Essington-Wilsons’ have a true family business, and son, Grant, shares co-ownership of Gold Coast Family Car Rentals with his parents. But the family is not content without a challenge. The next step for them will be to expand their franchise, helping consumers to get the fairest possible deal on car rental.
“I really want to establish a network of Family Car Rentals so that more rental customers can avoid rip-off pricing and contract conditions that are, in my opinion, disgraceful,” says Essington-Wilson.
“The planned franchise would operate within the framework of my business philosophy which begins with transparency in operations. Everything will flow from that. Transparency demands honesty; honesty begets courtesy, courtesy creates harmony; harmony brings referrals and repeats; and that gives you an easier business life.”
For more information call + 61 7 5508 3333 or visit Darryl’s website Cheap Car Hire Gold Coast and Gold Coast Airport Car Rental to get an online quote or book online.
Written & Syndicated by Baxton Media.
