Big easy for Northgate

Northgate has entered into an agreement with easyCar.com, the car rental company founded by easyJet boss Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, to supply vans to the consumer market.  The venture will see the van specialist supply LCVs to the public via the easyVan.com website. Customers make their booking over the internet, print off a voucher, and take it to their designated easyVan location. The market will be serviced through 88 Northgate locations and a number of additional third-party locations in areas where easyVan.com needs more coverage.

The vans, none of which will be liveried in Stelios' signature orange colours, will range in size from a Vauxhall Combo to a 3.5-tonne Ford Transit with Luton body and tail-lift. Phil Moorhouse, managing director UK Rental, Northgate, says: "easyVan.com expands our routes to market allowing us to reach the consumer without detracting from our main commercial offering. Our core business is still to provide the one-stop-shop for flexible vehicle solutions for our business-to-business customers. However, we see the venture with easyVan as our route to the private consumer."

A spokesman for Northgate adds: "This project increases Northgate's utilisation rates without us having to set up a consumer-facing service to our business." Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne says the group is now number one in the European van market, if Fiat Auto's Scudo and Ducato sales are added to those for the Iveco Daily. He hints that there could be increased co-operation between the two divisions in future when fleet business is increasingly targeted.