Sicily by Car is expanding in Europe, focusing on target countries with strong tourism potential. Thus, “Sicily by Car Portugal LDA” has been established, headquartered in Lisbon near Humberto Delgado International Airport. The subsidiary will have a fleet expected to be operational starting in May, aiming to seize opportunities during the 2024 summer season in a country with a strong tourism vocation, leveraging the B2B partnership agreements the Group holds with the largest international brokers capable of ensuring worldwide car rental service coverage (Booking.com, AutoEurope, Expedia, Cartrawler, Zuzuche/Qeeq, Carmore Korea, Rentcars Brasil, FTI Touristik, Ofran).
The presence in the capital Lisbon represents the first step in a path that will lead the Group to expand into the country’s main locations, replicating the Italian model of extensive presence in national and international airports and in cities with high tourism appeal.
Sicily by Car Portugal LDA was established with a share capital of Euro 1,000,000, of which Sicily By Car S.p.A. holds 90%, and the remaining 10% is owned by Fluttering Village, Unipessoal LDA, a business and management consulting company. João Ferreira da Silva Alves, 100% shareholder and sole director of Fluttering Village, Unipessoal LDA, has many years of consulting experience and has also collaborated with Industria Automovel – Mercedes-Benz dealership as senior account manager, dealing with business development and client management.
Tommaso Dragotto, Chairman and CEO of Sicily by Car: “We are pleased to announce our greenfield entry into the Portuguese car rental market, the first concrete step of the international expansion project announced at the time of our listing, which represents our main growth driver. We aim to establish a presence in the Iberian Peninsula, Northern Europe, and the Balkans: these are the first stages to continue on a large scale throughout Europe over the next five years. Fluttering Village, Unipessoal LDA boasts a solid network of relationships and will make an important contribution to spreading our brand in the country. For these reasons, we are very satisfied with their involvement in the project and the shared development goals.”
João Ferreira da Silva Alves, Sole Director of Fluttering Village, Unipessoal LDA: “We are pleased that Sicily by Car has chosen Portugal to consolidate its foreign presence as part of an increasingly broad and widespread international development path. We believe our country can offer great opportunities in this sector: we will contribute to the project with our many years of expertise and widespread knowledge of the Portuguese territory.”
The opening of the Portuguese subsidiary represents a further step forward in the international expansion path pursued in recent years, which has brought the Group to be present in Albania with the subsidiary “SBC Albania Sh.p.k.” with two offices in Tirana and Saranda, in Malta via franchising, and in France, Austria, Poland, and Montenegro through commercial partnerships.
The Group pursues three formulas for building the pan-European network under the SbC Europe brand:
- COMMERCIAL partnerships with local players that allow entering and studying a new market with limited investments. A pioneering business model that envisages spreading across European territory through a “network” of local agencies and brands ready to open up to ongoing collaborations based on reciprocal service: a win-win agreement exploiting international mobility flows with a long-term perspective.
- ACQUISITIONS of foreign companies operating in the same business sector;
- GREENFIELD entry into high-potential countries through opening proprietary stations.