Europcar, the UK’s leading vehicle hire company, has announced that it has revamped its website by enhancing their location based pages throughout the site. This update will provide customers with additional information on all car and van hire locations across its 160 countries.

The new location pages have been designed to help improve customer experience for UK based Europcarcustomers, by providing them with additional details on the specific geographical location of Europcar rental sites as well as some up-to-date extra information regarding the local area, with this extra information provided by Europcar, customers can plan their journey more efficiently thus ensuring a relaxing and stress-free vehicle hire experience.

The new sections which have now been added to the UK site include enhancement through the use of Google Maps to help customers find the numerous car hire locations situated in cities around the UK, including the ever popular car hire London locations. As well as Google Maps, each individual page has up to date weather information for the city as well as details of any special deals for booking car hire online for each particular location.

Catriona Lougher, marketing director for Europcar, said: “The improved location pages on the Europcar website has really improved our customer’s experience. At Europcar we know that customers want as much information as possible available to them, to make their car hire experience simple and stress-free. With the inclusion of Google Maps, customers can now find out how far to travel to our locations and decide whether to take advantage of our free delivery and collection service.”

About Europcar

Europcar is the European leader in passenger car and van hire. The company serves business and leisure customers throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

Europcar is the first company to win the World Travel Award for ‘the World’s Leading Green Transport Solution Company’. Today, more than 99% of Europcar’s fleet is certified ‘Euro IV’ or above – the most stringent applicable European Union standards today in terms of energy consumption and emissions.

Excluding franchise operations, in 2008 Europcar signed more than 10 million rental contracts, with 8000 employees and a fleet exceeding 225,000 vehicles. In September 2008, Europcar and U.S. market leader Enterprise Rent a Car joined forces in a strategic alliance to form the world’s largest car rental network, with more than 1.2 million vehicles and 13,000 locations around the world.

Al Tayer Group LLC today announced a franchise agreement with leading home furnishings retailer Crate and Barrel to open stores in the Middle East in early 2010.

Initial plans call for Crate and Barrel stores in Dubai and the first two stores for the brand will be located at the Mall of the Emirates and Mirdif City Centre. The stores will be managed and operated by Al Tayer Trends, the Group’s lifestyle retail company.

Crate and Barrel, an industry leader in its category in the United States is known for exclusive furniture and housewares designs, including kitchenware, tabletop, and home accessories with excellent value and superb customer service. All the categories of merchandise offered in the US will be available in the UAE stores.

Founded in 1962, as of July 2009, the company operates 177 stores across 82 North American markets, including Toronto and Calgary. Well-designed products at a good value were the basis of Crate and Barrel’s success in 1962 and are still the hallmark of the company. Excellent customer service is its standard, and Crate and Barrel is well-known in the home furnishings industry for the quality of its merchandise.

The brand also publishes a popular catalogue featuring furniture collection, ready to assemble furniture, and contemporary table settings and accessories for home, apart from being well known for its bridal registry.

On the occasion of the announcement of the brand’s overseas expansion, Barbara Turf, CEO of Crate and Barrel, said:
“Dubai represents an excellent growth opportunity and launching pad to extend our brand internationally. It is a robust retail market, with many similarities to U.S. retail—state-of-the-art shopping malls, high-profile global brands and a diverse and sophisticated customer base. We are fortunate in our franchise partner, Al Tayer Group, who brings tremendous operational expertise and resources to our collaboration.”

Khalid Al Tayer, COO, Al Tayer Group said, “We are pleased to bring the Crate and Barrel franchise to the region and are confident that the brand’s unique product mix coupled with our regional retail expertise will create a successful value proposition for customers.”

With nearly three decades of retail experience, the Group has established retail expertise, spanning multiple sectors. Al Tayer Trends, representing lifestyle retail, has witnessed the most rapid expansion of store network within the Group.