US car hire firm Alamo has taken its first steps towards hiring a UK
public relations agency in an effort to strengthen its presence in
Europe.
The company is testing the PR waters by holding talks with a number of
consultancies about the feasibility of out-sourcing publicity work.
Public relations manager Sandra Richards confirmed that Alamo is looking
to raise its overall profile in the UK and the rest of Europe, but
declined to say which agencies it had approached or to give details of a
likely brief.
‘We are talking to UK PR agencies, but it is a very short list - less
than ten - and we are not actively seeking proposals. I’d prefer not to
say who they are because we are still in the preliminary stages of a
search.
‘We are looking at a number of different options and using an in-house
department or consultancies are possibilities. It’s not appropriate to
discuss what our approach would be. We wouldn’t want our competitors to
know our future plans.’
Richards added that a decision on whether or not to appoint an agency
would be made in the first half of next year.
Alamo, which set up shop in the UK in 1990, has no dedicated PR function
for its 28 British outlets. Public relations for its European division
as a whole is handled from headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The firm currently enjoys a ten per cent slice of the car rental market
in the UK and Germany and is keen to increase its share in the face of
intense competition from rivals Avis, Hertz and Budget Rent-a-Car.
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