| Dollar Thrifty slashes pay, benefits
A slow travel market, weakening economy and disappointing fourth quarter are prompting Tulsa-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. to make major salary and benefit cuts, officials say.
In its third retrenchment of the past year, the rental car company is suspending its matching contributions to employees' 401(k) retirement plans. It is also suspending merit pay increases for executives and enacting 21 percent salary cuts for executives at the vice president level and above.
Employees were notified of the cuts during the past week in a memo from President and CEO Gary Paxton.
Dollar Thrifty employs 8,500 people worldwide and 970 in Tulsa.
“As you read daily in the headlines, the U.S. economy is slowing significantly and many economists are now projecting that we are entering a recession," Paxton wrote in the memo.
Dollar Thrifty stock plunges
The stock of Tulsa-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group plunged Monday, after the company sharply lowered its earnings estimate late Friday. The stock of the rental-car firm had its biggest drop in more than 10 years, falling $9.62 a share to $16.40 in New York Stock Exchange Trading. Dollar Thrifty officials estimated Friday that 2007 profit could be 90 cents to 95 cents a share, down from their November forecast of $1.75 to $1.85. Demand over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays was below expectations, CEO Gary L. Paxton said in a press release Friday. The company will report earnings on Feb. 28. .
Dollar Thrifty shares plummet
Shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. plunged 37 percent Monday following news late Friday that the company expects its 2007 profit to be lower than forecast.
The Tulsa-based rental car company saw its share price drop $9.62 to close at $16.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. More than 3.4 million shares were traded.
It was the biggest drop since Dollar Thrifty's initial public stock offering in December 1997, according to Bloomberg data.
The stock price also reached a new 52-week intraday trading low of $16.27, in contrast with a 52-week high of $55.30 last Feb. 14.
The 52-week high coincided with rumors that Dollar Thrifty and Tulsa-based Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc. were in merger talks. Such a deal never materialized.
Dollar Thrifty purchases Wichita Mid-Continent Airport franchises
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. has acquired the Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car in-terminal franchises at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. The Thrifty Car Rental location was acquired from Flacks Enterprises LLC, based in Kansas City, Mo. The Dollar Rent A Car operation was acquired from E & J Rental & Leasing Inc., owned by Wichitan Dave Johnson. Since 1995, the Dollar location has been the only locally-owned rental car company at the Mid-Continent Airport. The acquisitions were part of a move to bring franchises under corporate ownership at several major Midwestern airports. .
Year in review: Rental car industry finishes tumultuous year
In the rental car business, 2007 was a year of consolidation and retrenchment.
At the beginning of the year, industry insiders told the New York Times that two Tulsa-based rental car companies, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. and Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc. were in merger talks on a deal that could be worth $3 billion.
Weeks later, on March 30, St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced it was acquiring Vanguard.
At the time the deal was an nounced, Vanguard had 10,000 employees, 700 of them in Tulsa. Enterprise had 64,500 employees, including about 100 in Tulsa.
The merger was completed in August. By October, 300 of Vanguard's 700 Tulsa-based employees had been laid off or transferred, company executives said.
Dollar Thrifty also had a tumultuous year, marked by layoffs from lower to management levels as the company sought to cope with higher car and fleet financing costs.
Lacy to retire as president at Kronos Inc.
The Ain brothers at Kronos Inc. are losing one of their right-hand men. Paul Lacy, president of the Chelmsford maker of labor-management software since 2005, announced plans to step down. "It's been a great ride," said Lacy, 60. "I'm looking forward to learning to relax and then actually doing it." Lacy is a 20-year veteran at Kronos. Before being named president, he was executive vice president and chief financial and administrative officer. He was the key player in terms of getting the company to go public in 1992, and the point man behind many of Kronos' many strategic acquisitions. During his tenure, Kronos grew from a company that made time clocks with $26 million in annual revenues to an enterprise software company that posted $662 million in revenues in its most recent fiscal year.
Pokies rob $1.7bn from the broke
The revelations come just a week before the finalisation of the review of Gaming Machines Act, which is due to be handed down by December 19, but The Daily Telegraph understands it is expected to be tabled on December 13. Speculation in the industry points to the review lifting the cap on poker machines numbers from 30 to 40 and a change to the current shut-down hours but Gaming and Racing minister Graham West has ruled out any radical reforms to the number of machines allowed in each hotel. However, with sectors of the industry concerned the upcoming review will push up the cap, the latest records can now be been made public. This explosive data reveals for the first time the extent to which the State Government has allowed pokie entitlements to turn some hoteliers into one-man casinos.
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