THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW:Greg Turley, founder and chief executive CarTrawler

THE WAY Greg Turley, founder and chief executive of CarTrawler tells it, building a business which turned over €142 million last year is not a big deal.

“It’s a simple philosophy that has turned a family car hire business into a global player. CarTrawler sits in the middle of the car rental market. Over 550 rental companies feed their inventory of vehicles into its systems. Airlines, hotels, tourist boards – anyone with a website used by travellers – can then use CarTrawler’s software to offer an online car hire service which searches the market and offers the best price for a particular date and location,” says Turley.

“We look at the market and see where the sweet spot is. We look to maximise the return for us and our partners. The partners give us their ‘real estate’, their consumer touch points. It is up to us to do the marketing, conversion, selling, processing, customer service. All they want is to receive an amount of money into their bank account every month.”

The rental companies, particularly global players like Hertz, Avis and National, might be expected to be resistant to handing inventory to a small Irish player which is potentially disrupting the market and lowering prices. But Turley says because the industry is driven by utilisation – the revenue from a car sitting idle today can’t be regained tomorrow – they play ball.

“We market in 29 languages, take payment for the services in 49 currencies and get their product into channels that we own that they can’t get into,” says Turley. “If they want to be seen, they have to supply.”

The formula, which sees commission from car hire firms split between CarTrawler and the client hosting the technology, is working.

Airlines that implemented the company’s software, which it gives away for free, include Gulf Air; Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling; Finnair; Virgin Blue, BMIbaby and Emirates. CarTrawler also teamed up with ezRez Software and Tourico Holidays to create a system that provides hotel booking and car hire in one.

It’s a far cry from Turley’s entry to the business. Leaving school early, largely due to his dyslexia, he joined the family business Argus Car Hire.

“I started off cleaning cars but try and get Irish kids today to clean cars,” laughs Turley.

In the 1980s, Irish car rental firms were after the tourist market and there were two ways to get customers; get listed on the global distribution systems or through incoming tour operators. As an independent, it was impossible to get listed on global systems such as Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre that sit on the desks of travel agents and corporate travel bookers, while the tour operators demanded low pricing and long periods of credit.

The only way to compete was to go after niche markets. Turley did deals with insurance companies to offer replacement car hire for travellers who had a breakdown and started doing corporate rentals, where the expanding pharmaceutical sector was a good earner.

Argus also carved out a niche in the film industry which proved lucrative, particularly in winning the contract when Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan came to town.

“Logistically it was a nightmare because it was on a beach and everything had to be 4x4 or a bus. I had every available 4X4 that was on any car sales lot or in any fleet, buses, people carriers, I had them contracted in as well as our own fleet.” Despite picking up the crumbs that the big boys overlooked, the firm was still struggling to compete.

“Because of the channels that we were in, all our business was basically on that day or the next day. There was no visibility.”

He considered buying a franchise for one of the major brands but baulked at giving away what his family had worked so hard to build up. Something had to give.

Turley had been aware of the internet since the early 1990s. A programmer we had hired a van to move house and told him it was going to change the world. He thought he was mad, but still kept an eye on the emerging technology.

Deciding the time was right, Turley teamed up with the Virtual Irish Pub, then the most popular Irish website, to create the first online car rental service in Europe.

The problem was that while the site created a huge number of e-mail inquiries, they were coming in for all over Europe, not Dublin. Due to government transport policy at the time, the queries that came in for Ireland were for Shannon and Belfast, where most US tourists began their Irish holidays. Never one to miss an opportunity, Turley quickly put in place deals with rental companies in these locations so he could keep the business.

“It sort of snowballed through the years and Argus Online became bigger than Argus Car Rental and much more profitable,” he says.

Realising that other independent firms faced the same issues, CarTrawler was born in 2004.

“Even today, the situation I experienced has got worse because of consolidation,” says Turley. “Always at the back of my mind was if you could consolidate these [independent] companies onto a single platform and deliver it to the market, surely it’s a better offering to the consumer and to the industry?”

In 2007, the physical car rental business was sold to Irish Car Rentals. It was a tough decision to part with the family business, but Turley is pragmatic about it.

“I sold the headaches and kept the asset, which was the name.” Argus Online is now a car rental broker that uses CarTrawler’s technology and is maintained by a separate team at the company’s Dublin offices.

Turley and his firm are resolutely low-key. The company is housed in a modern converted church in Dublin’s Milltown suburb, into which it moved last year. The property crash allowed it to get the building on good terms, but Turley admits he was loath to move from the old office – even though staff were queuing to go the toilet at the end. Slightly embarrassed by the large board room booked for the interview, we adjourn to his office located in a nook just off one of the open-plan floors.

Etrawler, the company behind CarTrawler, changed its status to unlimited in 2009 which means it does not have to file its annual accounts with the Companies Office. Turley says it is because he’s competing against multinationals and does not want to reveal financial information that might give them an advantage, but the move seems in keeping with a man who admits his company flies beneath the radar in Ireland.

Despite opportunities to move into other markets, Turley points out car hire is a $35 billion industry, so there is room for growth. The 84-person company has an office in Seattle, which is headed up by a former senior executive with travel website Expedia. “Over there we can get better quality people for lower cost,” and Turley says the move has meant he spends less time on the road.

Although he is looking for outside, private equity, investment for the first time – himself and his brother are the major shareholders – he leaves the impression that he’s more than happy with what his family firm has become.

“It’s a good place to be. You’ve got the internet and there’s no recession on the internet. You’ve got an industry that was fairly neglected. An industry that’s looking for new distribution channels . . . They say that timing and foresight are important. We seem to have that in spades,” he laughs.

On the record

Position: Chief executive and founder, CarTrawler.

Age: 49.

Family: Married to Audrey with a daughter Sarah

Why is he in the news:CarTrawler is looking for outside investment for the first time and is negotiation with private equity firms.

Something you might expect:The car lover used to be a motor racer in his spare time.

Something that might surprise:He left school due to his dyslexia.