About Us
“A lot of people fail in business and fail to achieve what they set out to do,” Dan Mekler, the Managing Director of Redspot Car Rentals says.
“Success is not only about having goals, it’s also about being persistent. There is no secret formula to being successful.”
Dan has lived by this philosophy for his entire entrepreneurial career, starting Redspot from scratch and growing it into the largest independent car rental company in Australia.
Our Origins
Dan founded Redspot in 1989 after seizing an opportunity to expand his service station business in Waterloo, New South Wales. He purchased two courtesy cars—a Holden Ute and a Ford Laser—and, somewhat by chance, fell into the rental industry.
“It was more of a side line to my workshop, which was quite a strong business at the time,” he explains. “I started with a couple of cars, and then I went to a government auction thinking I would buy a few newer cars to attract some more customers into my workshop. I went to my local lawyer and put a rental agreement together and then I advertised to all my service station customers. I made it known that not only did I have a great workshop with a team of mechanics ready to service them, but I also had courtesy cars which they could rent at very reasonable rates. That is how the rental business began.”
Redspot quickly grew from two cars to 15 through its success in the local marketplace. But Dan wasn’t completely satisfied. He felt the business still had a lot of potential, so in the mid-90s decided to open a city office on Elizabeth Street in Surry Hills, Sydney. He set out to attract clients from the tourism and hotel sectors and then closed the service station part of his business so he could focus all of his attention on rental cars.
Soon after that, a huge opportunity presented itself—the Sydney Airport tender. “I thought, ‘that sounds like a real challenge; that sounds like something I would really like to achieve’,” Dan recalls. “So I totally set my focus on us winning that tender and that’s what we did. By early 1999, we were open on Sydney Airport running a fully-fledged airport car rental business in time for the Sydney 2000 Olympics which was another great opportunity for us. It was the first time a local company had actually won that type of licence.”
Customer Focussed
Following its first airport win in Sydney, Redspot was able to expand its presence around the country, and by 2005 it had opened three additional on-airport locations—the Gold Coast, Cairns, and Launceston. Four years later, it opened in Brisbane, Hobart, Perth and Melbourne airports, and today has a network presence of over 50 locations, including inside the top 25 airports terminals in Australia.
This growth success achievement is largely because of its commitment to always putting our customer first. “We have taken the view that repeat business is the key to our success, so we have been very transparent with our business products and services.”
Dan adds that the second component to Redspot’s success is having a great workplace culture with staff who can deliver on the aforementioned high degree of customer service. Training revolves around client satisfaction and forms the basis of all of its operations. “Whether we are washing cars, or renting cars, or answering the telephone, or in the accounts department, or even in the claims department; we are all there to service our customers as best we can. If we can win a customer and keep a customer for life then that is our greatest achievement.”
Today and into the Future
Redspot business model today continues the legacy of our founder Dan Mekler that allowed it to have achieve the success it has to date. Its network development plan is now focused on more regional and rural locations, and is now a franchisor in its own right, partnering with mutual thinking companies with the same vision and goals as Redspot.
“We put out our mission statement in 1995 and it hasn’t changed. It is: ‘At Redspot we aim to provide our customers with such exceptional service, quality vehicles, and value for money that they will always chose to rent from us.’ – Dan Mekler.
