Stelios to launch easyCar franchise in Cyprus

GREEK-born Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou is launching his easyCar franchise in Cyprus to target tourists after sealing a deal with a local car-hire firm.

According to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the easyJet tycoon has reached agreement with a Greek Cypriot businessman, Spyros Spyrou, who will own and operate 200 cars in return for a royalty to use the easyCar name.

Haji-Ioannou told The Guardian that some agreements would be franchising tie-ups with local operators. In other instances, easyCar would act as a broker, allowing customers to use its website to book cars with other companies. “The credibility of a company like easyCar with headquarters in Camden to run a business in Cyprus is zero,” he told the newspaper. “This type of deal is the only way to expand internationally.”

EasyCar currently has 8,000 cars at more than 50 sites in Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland, all run by Haji-Ioannou’s company. The tycoon also owns shipping giant Stelmar and a chain of other low-cost ‘easy’ brands including Internet cafés, cinemas, pizza delivery, cruises and buses.

Haji-Ioannou switched his easyInternetCafés over to franchising two years ago, which has proved to be a huge success. He also intends to use a franchising system to develop a chain of low-cost hotels, already having approaches from possible franchisees in Cape Town, New York and Singapore, The Guardian said.

Haji-Ioannou recently sold £14m worth of shares in easyJet, his first ‘easy’ venture, to fund a series of other no-frills brands, some of which have been loss-making. “I think in decades not one or two years or quarters,” he said.
Representatives of what will be the local easyCar franchise in Cyprus were unavailable for comment yesterday.