History of Sixt

HISTORY OF SIXT CR

Sixt started operations in the Czech Republic in December 1998, represented by Speed Rent a.s., Sixt Franchisee. The first offices were opened at Prague's Ruzyně Airport and in the center of Prague. Since the beginning of its activity, Sixt ČR has been one of the few car rental companies to offer online connections between all European and world Sixt stations.

The interest of clients is growing, which is why other branches are gradually being opened:

Karlovy Vary, Brno airport and Brno city
in Slovakia: Bratislava-hotel Holiday Inn, Bratislava airport
České Budějovice
Prague - Barrandov Studios, Prague 4 Daimler-Chrysler building, Hilton hotel

The fleet of the Sixt car rental company initially included around a hundred vehicles from the Ford, Volkswagen, Škoda brands and, above all, as the only car rental company in the Czech Republic, the Mercedes-Benz brand. It offers off-road vehicles, convertibles and limousines. Over time, the rental of motorcycles, boats, motor boats, jet skis and motor homes has increased. VW Polo, Golf, Passat and Audi cars are also on the rise. All cars are regularly changed to meet customer needs to the maximum.

As part of the Sixt program, Sixt offers free SixtExpress cards, which make it easier and faster to rent at any branch in the world.

For the maximum comfort of corporate customers, Sixt cooperates with the Four Seasons and Hilton hotels and provides a prestigious service called limousine serivce = vehicles with a driver. Although this service accounts for only 5% of the company's sales, Sixtu's business card is accurate: above all, quality and service!

Sixt CR makes sure that it continues to develop and maintain the highest quality services, as evidenced by the receipt of several prestigious awards.

FLOTILA AWARD: Nejlepší autopůjčovna - partner správce autoparku
FLOTILA AWARD: Nejlepší produkt - operativní leasing

Sixt has been in the Czech Republic for over 20 years and is a market leader in providing services to corporate fleets. In particular, car rental services are a necessary complement to the widely evolving strategy of companies switching to operating leasing services. Sixt CR operates approximately 4,000 vehicles under operating leases. Sixt's goal is to offer customers more than just cars. We know more about our customers than others and it is a pleasure for us to fulfill their wishes.

We will take care of you - your Sixt!

If you are more interested in details of the history of Sixt CR, visit this link: Detailed history of Sixt.

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HISTORY OF SIXT INTERNATIONAL

Sixt AG is the German leader in the car rental segment and continues to expand throughout Europe. Founded in 1912 as Sixt Autofahrten und Selbstfahrer by Mr. Martin Sixt. The company has approximately 1,400 branches in other countries, mainly in Europe, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Tunisia and Morocco, and now also in the USA. Sixt focuses on business travelers and works with a number of airlines, including Lufthansa, and with hotel chains belonging to the Hilton, Kempinski and Leading Hotels of the World groups. Sixt is also one of Germany's largest used car dealers. Most of the sales come from rental car branches and used car shops. Sixt is also active in car and equipment leasing, as well as in the e-commerce segment. A descendant of Martin Sixt's founder, Erich Sixt, runs the business and owns 67 percent of Sixt AG.

Sixt employees in front of a branch

If you are interested in more detailed information, read on this page below or use this link more here.

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KEY DATA:

1912: Martin Sixt founds a car rental company called Sixt Autofahrten und Selbstfahrer. It starts with 3, later 7 cars.
1927: The founder's nephew Hans Sixt takes over the company.
1946: After the Second World War, the company starts again with 3 cars that managed to hide in a barn.
1967:The company begins to provide fleet management services and the then form of operating leasing.
1969: Erich Sixt joins the family business.
1977: A license agreement is concluded with the American company Budget Rent a Car.
1986: Sixt goes public and becomes Sixt AG.
1996: The first Sixt foreign branch opens at Vienna Airport.
1997: Sixt Travel Division established. Sixt has terminated its cooperation agreement with Budget.
1999:The company concludes a cooperation agreement with Dollar Rent a Car.
2000: Sixt opens an electronic business platform focused on cars and travel.
2005:Sixt launches the low-cost Sixti product at EUR 5 per day.
2010:Sixt in cooperation with BMW opens one of the first car sharing products to customers.
2018:Sixt experiences the most successful year in its history, sharply raising the share value and approving dividend increases.
2019: Sixt sells its stake in Drive-Now, establishes its own car sharing SIXT SHARE and launches the first internationally operating application of its kind on the SIXT App market, including three products at once: RENT - RIDE - SHARE.
2020: Sixt expand even the COVID and buy 10 locations in USA incl.major airport JFK, expand with carsharing in Netherland and new product SIXTPLUS.

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COMPANY HISTORY:

Sixt AG is the German leader in the car rental segment and continues to expand throughout Europe. The company has approximately 1,400 branches in other countries, mainly in Europe, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Tunisia and Morocco, and now also in the USA. Sixt focuses on business travelers and works with a number of airlines, including Lufthansa, and with hotel chains belonging to the Hilton group, Kempinski or Leading Hotels of the World. Sixt is also one of Germany's largest used car dealers. Most of the sales come from rental branches and used car shops. Sixt is also active in car and equipment leasing, as well as in the e-commerce segment. A descendant of Martin Sixt's founder, Erich Sixt, runs the business and owns 67 percent of Sixt AG.

Sixt has been in the Czech Republic for almost 15 years and is the market leader in providing services to corporate fleets. In particular, car rental services are a necessary complement to the widely developing strategy of companies switching to operating leasing services. Sixt CR operates approximately 4,000 vehicles under operating leases. The prestigious service is the so-called limousine service, car rental and driver. Although this service accounts for only 5% of the company's total sales, Sixtu's business card is accurate: above all, quality and service!

BEGINNING IN 1912

As the car became a fashionable affair among wealthy passengers and drivers, German car lover Martin Sixt got a taste for business. In 1912, he wrote a letter to his brother to come to Munich, Bavaria, that he had an idea. They founded the company "Sixt Autofahren und Selbstfahrer." It was one of the first German car rental companies based in Munich. The target customer group was British nobles and wealthy Americans. Sixt rented its four Mercedes cars and three Luxus-Deutz-Landaulet cars for one day at a time and offered customized tours with a company driver. However, only two years later, at the beginning of World War I, the German army confiscated his vehicles. After the war, Sixt acquired real estate in Munich (Seitzstrasse 11), from where it gradually expanded its business. He ran this business according to three basic principles:

1. Have the right cars,
2.Offer perfect service for the customer.
3. Minimize administrative costs.

Martin Sixt's 20-year-old nephew, Hans Sixt, took over the company in 1927. He added two new principles to Sixt's business philosophy: creativity and innovation. Two years after the takeover, the new owner decided to stop using foreign cars due to difficulties in procuring spare parts. Instead, Sixt chose the domestic Mercedes model as its only brand and soon built a fleet of 20 cars. The worldwide economic boycott of Nazi Germany, which was preparing for war, led in 1938 to a significant decline in business in the car rental segment. A year later, Sixt's vehicles were again confiscated by the German army for use on the battlefields of World War II.

Towards the end of the war, the company's founder, Martin Sixt, had a very hard time destroying his life's work with Allied bombings. He died in May 1945. Hans Sixt started the business "from scratch" the following year with a Mercedes 230, which survived the war hidden in a barn in Upper Bavaria. Sixt was lucky enough to get a taxi license and drive members of the American occupying forces around Munich in his seven-seater limousine. Hans Sixt called his new service Export Taxi and soon began offering it to business travelers and VIPs. Another Sixt innovation was the fleet of taxi vehicles, which were equipped with radio equipment from the United States launched in 1948. Three years later, a company called "Auto Sixt" was founded as a rental company for motorists who wanted to drive the car themselves. . Hans Sixt was also active in the sale of cars and the operation of petrol stations. In the 1960s, when Germany was hit by the economic boom, the company began to prosper again. In 1966, Sixt opened branches at Munich and Frankfurt airports. The Hans Sixt era ended in 1967 with the company's expansion into the car leasing business. Less than two years later, Hans brought his son Erich to the company and gave up its management for health reasons. Hans Sixt died in August 1998 at the age of 89. Even before that, however, he lived to see his company achieve a turnover of 2 billion former German marks.

IN 1970 AND 1980, ERICH SIXT CHANGES THE RULES

Sixt joined the family business at the age of 25 after graduating from university and fundamentally changed the German car rental business for the better. In 1960, the sector was characterized by high prices and limited services. Only rich people rented cars at that time. Erich Sixt looked at things differently: renting a car should be affordable for everyone. To relieve car rental of a touch of exclusivity, it offered its customers Mercedes at a rate for Volkswagen, ie DM 66 per day, which was a very low price at the time. From the very beginning, Sixt has run provocative advertising campaigns aimed at attracting attention. British American competitors in particular were concerned about its flexible prices, which were always slightly lower than theirs. One of the popular slogans was "Rather to Sixt than too expensive"; however, its use was soon banned by the strict German antitrust authorities.

In 1969, the German car rental market was dominated by seven major national and international players, with around 2,000 local businesses competing for the remaining crumbs. When Erich Sixt took over the management of the company this year, his fleet numbered 100 cars. A year later, the company began renting trucks. Another important Sixt strategy was to get significant discounts from car manufacturers when buying brand new cars and then rent these cars for only a few months to a year. The company was thus able not only to offer customers the latest models, but after several months of renting, when the cars were still new, they were also selling them at favorable prices without having to make many repairs.

Sixt has set up its own used car sales company, Autoland Central Garagen GmbH, which has become another major source of profit. In the early 1970s, Erich Sixt looked for software to help manage the company's dynamic growth. However, he could not afford customized programs at the prices charged at the time. So he looked for a book on computer programming and wrote the code himself, which was then being introduced by punching holes in paper cards.

The year 1977 marked another important turning point for Sixt. This year, the company opened branches at all major German airports. More importantly, the company entered into a licensing agreement with Budget Rent a Car, an American car rental giant. As a result, Sixt car rentals have been included in the lists of the worldwide Budget network. The importance of this alliance is reflected in the fact that in 1982, when the company was renamed Sixt Autovermietung GmbH, the Budget logo became part of the Sixt logo. Another license for Germany was acquired by Sixt in 1979 from Carey-Limousine Service, and its company was included in the world's leading driver limousine service network. A year later, Sixt started the leasing business as an independent company and founded Auto Leasing GmbH (ASL) together with the Düsseldorf-based Disko Group. Later, in 1988, Sixt founded his own leasing company, Sixt Leasing GmbH. Until 1982, Sixt was the eighth largest car rental company in Germany. In 1986, the company was renamed Sixt AG and entered the German stock exchange as a joint-stock company, which provided additional capital for further expansion. However, Erich Sixt remained the company's majority shareholder.

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A NEW ERA OF EXPANSION BEGINS IN 1990

At the beginning of the 1990s, Sixt AG had all the prerequisites to reach the market leader, interRent Europcar Autovermietung GmbH. With more than 1 billion German turnover marks and 238 car rental branches, Sixt has made it to second place in the ranking of German car rental companies. The fall of the Berlin Wall meant new business opportunities. In 1990, Sixt's company opened 15 car rental companies in the former East Germany. One of the branches stands directly at the Brandenburg Gate. Sixt AG has also benefited from the huge demand for used cars in the new East German countries. This year, its sales of used cars were higher than those of car rental companies. Overall, the company's sales this year increased by 40 percent in the used car sales segment and by 47 percent in the car rental segment. Sixt was not satisfied with the higher demand generated by German unification; moreover, he sought a higher market share through an unusual offer that would differentiate his company from the competition. Sixt's customers could rent a Harley Davidson motorcycle or a Porsche Cabrio, as well as a heavy flatbed truck. Another new vehicle that Sixt made available was the so-called "conference-mobile", ie a mobile office that included a computer, fax and telephone. Sixt has also expanded its leasing services. In addition to car leasing, Sixt Leasing also offered financing for heavy machinery and even financing for dental practice equipment. The so-called "Vario-Leasing" allowed customers to sign one leasing contract and change the car several times during the lease.

An important part of the company's marketing strategy in this period were provocative advertising campaigns, which won a number of awards from the advertising industry for their creativity. For example, when the American rival company Avis used the slogan "We try harder", Sixt published the headline "Don't try harder, try Sixt". Another advertisement depicted the Queen of England in her carriage with the caption "If she had booked at Sixt she could have had a Mercedes". The German news magazine Der Spiegel was only willing to publish this advertisement if Sixt bought all the English cargo, if the British store refused to publish it. However, Sixt refused and placed the ad in other publications.

Not all of Erich Sixt's ambitious plans were successful. His idea of including hotels for business travelers in the portfolio of services has never been realized. Sixt unsuccessfully applied for the acquisition of the former East German chain Interhotel. In addition, Germany was hit by an economic recession in 1992 and the car rental market fell sharply over the next three years. Sixt's company was particularly hard hit by its core business, which put it under financial pressure. Interest rates have risen while used car prices have fallen. The average waiting time has doubled due to the sale of used cars. Used cars for sale occasionally blocked the streets adjacent to the company's second-hand car dealerships. At the same time that there was no money, the debt on interest rates rose by 30 percent to DM 52 million. The company's shares were losing and its own capital base began to decline.

Faced with this situation, Erich Sixt restructured his empire. Sixt AG became a holding company, while car rentals were organized under the auspices of Sixt GmbH & Co Autovermietung KG. Sixt sold its 50.2 percent stake in ASL to minority shareholder KG Allgemeine Leasing. He thus gave up two-thirds of the total turnover from leasing sales, amounting to DM 300 million, in order to gain the necessary cash and greater control over his business.

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PARTNERSHIPS AND INNOVATION STIMULATE GROWTH IN 1994

In the 1990s, competition between car rental companies intensified. In just two years, the number of competing companies in the German market has fallen from 1,400 to 1,100. In order to gain strength, Sixt AG has started looking for new business partners in the field of tourism. In 1994, the company entered into an agreement with the leading German air carrier Deutsche Lufthansa and became a partner in its Miles & More program. Program participants who rented a car from Sixt's Company earned bonus miles, and Lufthansa customers could rent a car at check-in at the airline's counter. The CEO of Lufthansa became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sixt's Company. At the end of 1994, Sixt AG became the number one car rental company in Germany in terms of turnover; the company owes much of its success to its alliance with Lufthansa. Sixt also managed to reach commuters, who generated 60 percent of total revenue for the company, compared to an average of 35 percent in this segment. After opening several branches near the ICE high-speed railway stations, Sixt's company began cooperating with the German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG.

Another cooperation agreement was signed in 1997 with the leading German car club ADAC. The club, which offered various road services for motorists, entered the car rental market with its subsidiary ADAC Autovermietung München GmbH in 1991 and began working with Europcar, a Sixt competitor. ADAC members could book a car rental via the ADAC phone number, but had to rent a car at one of Europcar's 450 rental shops. To expand its network, ADAC signed a second contract with Sixtus, gaining access to another 326 car rental companies at the time. Private passengers, who were not otherwise obliged, could therefore turn to Sixt's car rental companies in this way. However, Sixt AG, like Europcar, had to offer its services at fixed prices. Another area of cooperation with ADAC was the provision of replacement vehicles to ADAC members after an accident, and these replacement vehicles could be ordered via a 24-hour emergency line.

In addition to strategic partnerships, Sixt's company also focused on its own innovations. In 1996, the company introduced its Sixt SelfService Centers at major city airports, where customers could rent a car without having to deal with a clerk behind the counter. At Sixt's Vending Machine ("Car-Express-Vending Machine"), the customer could rent a car before departure using a credit card or Sixt's membership card and pick up the keys to his rented car at Sixt's safe after arrival. The company thus canceled waiting in line as obsolete and at the same time saved on staff. Another experiment was launched in the same year together with Deutsche Bahn. Individual environmentally friendly passengers could rent an InnerCity E-Mobil, an Renault Clio equipped with an electric motor, at the ICE train stations in Munich and Frankfurt am Main. Customers could book an electric car when purchasing an ICE ticket at the train station and pick it up at a Sixt rental shop upon arrival in Munich or Frankfurt. These electric cars with a maximum speed of 95 kilometers per hour covered about 90 kilometers with a fully charged battery, while the battery could be recharged from any electrical outlet. As part of another incentive, electric cars could park for free in several parking garages in inner Munich.

Last but not least, Sixt continued its award-winning advertising campaigns led by Hamburg-based Jung von Matt. Characteristic and engaging advertisements were placed in the renowned German weekly Der Spiegel. One popular advertisement featured a Social Democratic candidate for chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, with the caption: "Sixt has cars for people who don't yet know where they want to go." Among other awards, Sixt's advertising campaign received an award from the Art Directors Club of Europe.

IMPOSSIVE INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION AT THE END OF THE NINETY

In the second half of the 1990s, Sixt AG began an aggressive expansion into other countries around the world. In 1996, the first Sixt car rental was opened at Vienna Airport. The following year, the company penetrated into France and the United Kingdom. In France, Sixt set up a joint venture with Eurorent S.A. based in Paris with more than 100 car rentals. In the UK, Sixt bought European Car Rental, a small player in the UK market with eight rental companies and a fleet of 1,000 cars. In 1998, Sixt car rentals were opened at major airports in Ireland and Italy, Spain and Portugal, Malta and the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Hungary, Morocco and New Zealand. The Czech Republic was, after all, the first franchise country of Sixt. Central reservation offices have also been established in the United States, Canada and Australia.

At the same time, Sixt has established new partnerships with airlines under their programs, such as British Airways (the Executive Club program), United Airlines (the Mileage Plus program), Air France (the "Frequency Plus" program) or KLM (the "Frequency Plus" program). Flying Dutchman ”). The American group Hilton eventually became an important partner doing business in the hotel industry.

However, at least one party was not particularly pleased with Sixt's massive international expansion; this party was a licensing partner, Budget Rent A Car. In the spring of 1997, the license agreement between Sixt AG and Budget was terminated. However, the basic factor in the end of the cooperation in the background was the real difference in the quality of services, when Sixt preferred quality and not price. Meanwhile, in 1999, Sixt signed a cooperation agreement with another major American company, Dollar Rent a Car; the agreement entered into force in March 2000. At the same time, Sixt's company also bought the UK's United Kenning Rental Group, a car rental company.

Erich Sixt's last venture was a virtual German car shop based on the e-Sixt electronic platform. About ten percent of all car rental revenue went online; the company expected to sell cars, spare parts, airline tickets and insurance contracts over the internet by 2003 for DM 300 million. Sixt planned to use its four million customer database to launch the new service. In the spring of 2000, Erich Sixt confided to the correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Karl-Heinz Büschmann, that information technology was one of his responsibilities and that he spent many hours a day on the Internet. At the age of 55, he still had no plans to retire. He said: "I will not sell my business, it is my life and hobby. I wouldn't know what else to do. "

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