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Aljomaih Auto Rental is a subsidiary of Aljomaih Holding
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Vehicle rental market in the country is forecast to grow 7.5 percent until 2026
Despite the travel restrictions enforced due to the coronavirus pandemic in Saudi Arabia, the country’s car rental firm, Aljomaih Auto Rental (AJAR), clocked a forty percent growth in 2020, surprising many in the market.
“It wasn’t a great year” is how Ahmed Al-Lawendy, chief operating officer of AJAR, sums up 2020.
However, despite the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and some of its vehicles being grounded due to travel restrictions during the lockdown, the company still registered double-digit growth, with 2020 being its first year of profitability.
“So it is a little bit contradictory,” Al-Lawendy told Arab News. AJAR is a subsidiary of Aljomaih Holding and is the master franchisee of the Enterprise, National, and Alamo car rental brands in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Levant, and Austria.
Missouri-based Enterprise Holdings, Inc. is the largest car rental company in the world, and AJAR was established in 2015 and began trading in May 2018. According to a report by the Research And Markets company, the vehicle rental market in Saudi Arabia is forecast to grow by 7.5 percent per annum between 2020 and 2026.
Despite Al-Lawendy describing 2020 as “not a great year,” AJAR grew by 40 percent year-on-year and is forecast to grow by about the same figure in 2021. “January 2021 was much better than 2019 or 2020, so it is getting better,” he said.
The reason the company was able to maintain double-digit growth was its unique approach to the lockdown in early 2020 when it allowed clients to keep cars in their driveways free of charge and use them if they needed to, whether to go to the supermarkets or health clinics.
The decision came down to logistics, as the company had 4,500 vehicles and could not store them all in their facilities. On top of that, when the lockdown ended in June, clients already had rental cars in their possession and could easily return to normal.
“It was a nice message from our marketing and our admin team,” Al-Lawendy said, adding that after lockdown, the business quickly recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the company began buying more vehicles, with its fleet in Saudi Arabia rising by 27 percent year-on-year to 5,700 units by the end of 2020. “It kept the customer loyal to the brand and loyal to us,” he added.