Sixt Experiences Record Demand Due To Rail Strike

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

The rail strike in Germany led to a record run at the car rental company Sixt. Now the company wants to expand further abroad.

After a good start to the year and the successful IPO of its leasing subsidiary, Germany's largest car rental company Sixt is starting the year optimistically. The company wants to benefit from further international expansion: In addition to the planned further expansion of the station network in the USA, the company has also been awarded the contract by the French state railway SNCF for initially 14 stations at French train stations and is hoping for additional sales, as CEO Erich Sixt on Monday in Munich said.

Sales increase by a fifth

On the home market of Germany, the series of train driver strikes recently brought the car rental company a brief record demand. At the beginning of the one-week break at the beginning of May, the company experienced the best Monday in the company's history with an occupancy rate of 100 percent, said Sixt. "We were swept clean." The currently announced strike could also have similar effects, but the strike phases are always too short to have a significant impact on the group result, said Sixt.

In the first quarter, the Group's total revenue, including the proceeds from the sale of used leasing vehicles, rose by a good fifth to EUR 464 million compared to the same period in the previous year. Sixt earned EUR 28.1 million before taxes, 5.5 percent more than a year earlier. Sixt reaffirmed the outlook for this year: Group operating sales of just under 1.7 billion euros should therefore increase slightly and earnings before tax of 157 million euros should be kept stable or even slightly increased. The course of the second quarter so far ensures confidence: “At the moment, our growth is unabated. As of today, we are definitely on the right course,”said the CEO. (dpa)