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A car and campervan firm with past ties to Tourism Holdings says the company is trying to drive it out of the Australian market.
Jucy Rentals' chief executive Tim Alpe - who formed the company with his brother to be a key agent for Tourism Holdings five years ago - said Tourism Holdings had registered the Jucy name in Australia to prevent his company using it there.
On Tuesday Tourism Holdings - which is the subject of a takeover offer - issued Jucy's new Queensland operation with a lawyer's letter telling it to cease and desist marketing its operations as Jucy saying it had registered the name in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Tourism Holdings Rentals chief operating officer Chris Rusden confirmed there were no immediate plans to use the Jucy name but dismissed Alpe's gripes, saying he was responding to Tourism Holdings' success.
"We had a good year for rentals and it is probably at the Alpes' expense. With everything that is happening now they may just want to put something on us," said Melbourne based Rusden.
The brand name row will be a small distraction for Tourism Holdings management as they prepare for the takeover by MFS Living & Leisure. But the campervan market is important to Tourism Holdings.
Tourism Holdings Rentals has a 60-65 per cent share of the campervan market on both sides of the Tasman with brands including Maui Britz and Backpacker.
But in the past five years Jucy Rentals - formerly Ezy Rentals - has grown to a leading player in the second-tier campervan market with 1300 rental cars and 200 campervans, Alpe says.
According to figures to June 2006 year, Tourism Holdings' campervan rental business had ebita (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) of $24.7 million, representing about about 80 per cent of the total. The margin of 22.7 per cent for rental division compared with 9.3 per cent for the rest of Tourism Holdings.
Alpe said he had taken legal advice and was confident he would be able to use the Jucy name, having registered Jucy Pty for Queensland on April 11, the same day Tourism Holdings did in the three states, and had taken further steps to register the brand.
"They have no plans to use the Jucy name and it is a spoiler to limit our using it in the Australian market," said Alpe.
Ian Alpe's father Chris was a founder for Maui Campervans - which was a part of the foundation for Tourism Holdings - and was a former director of Tourism Holdings.
