Enterprise Holdings
Enterprise Holdings is proud to support our nation's service members and their families, whether it's by providing superior service to military agencies, volunteering our time or enlisting military veterans and reservists to join our ranks. And it's been that way from the beginning.
World War II Navy veteran Jack Taylor started our company in 1957. Lessons he learned in the Navy – including the values of integrity, hard work, team spirit and simply doing the right thing – helped shape his personality and made their mark on the company he founded. Today, the Taylor family still owns Enterprise Holdings, and is committed to maintaining these values and reflecting this deep military heritage.
Enterprise Holdings – which operates the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent A Car brands – is the largest car rental company in the world as measured by revenue, fleet, and employees. Enterprise Holdings’ annual revenues also place it near the top of the travel industry, exceeding all other rental car companies, and most airlines, cruise lines, hotels, tour operators and online travel agencies.
Enterprise Holdings has a rich and distinctive heritage. It's a truly remarkable story of how entrepreneurship, hard work and a big dream can turn a tiny start-up into a world-class company.
The story begins with our founder, Jack Taylor. Born in our company's home town of St. Louis in 1922, Jack heeded his country's call after the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II. In 1942, he enlisted and served as a decorated WWII Hellcat pilot in the skies over the South Pacific.
Then, like so many others of the “Greatest Generation," Jack returned home to raise his family and start a business. Lessons learned in the Navy – including the values of integrity, hard work, team spirit and simply doing the right thing – helped shape his personality. They also made their mark on the company he founded in 1957, and that his family owns to this day.
In a tiny lower-level office in a St. Louis Cadillac dealership, he started out with a fleet of seven cars, one employee and a commitment to provide a uniquely personal brand of customer service.
Jack developed a simple but enduring business philosophy that still guides our efforts as the largest rental car operation in the world: “Take care of your customers and your employees first, and the profits will follow." As his company grew, the Navy veteran expanded operations into new markets and named the company after an aircraft carrier on which he had served, the World War II USS Enterprise.
The ship was the most decorated vessel in the U.S. Navy fleet before its decommissioning in 2012. The Secretary of the U.S. Navy has since announced the Enterprise name will live on as the official moniker for the CVN-80, the next nuclear aircraft carrier to be constructed. This marks the ninth time the U.S. Navy will have a ship called Enterprise in its fleet.
To learn more, please see our Military Heritage site, which highlights employment opportunities and supports transitioning military personnel, veterans, members of the National Guard and Reserve, and military families. For more information about Enterprise’s business principles, also check out our Founding Values and Cultural Compass sites, which focus on our operations, diversity and inclusion, workplace quality, business ethics, public affairs and philanthropy, and environmental conservation.
- See more at: http://www.enterpriseholdings.com/about-us/heritage/#sthash.XT2GyXRP.dpuf
Enterprise Holdings has a rich and distinctive heritage. It's a truly remarkable story of how entrepreneurship, hard work and a big dream can turn a tiny start-up into a world-class company.
The story begins with our founder, Jack Taylor. Born in our company's home town of St. Louis in 1922, Jack heeded his country's call after the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II. In 1942, he enlisted and served as a decorated WWII Hellcat pilot in the skies over the South Pacific.
Then, like so many others of the “Greatest Generation," Jack returned home to raise his family and start a business. Lessons learned in the Navy – including the values of integrity, hard work, team spirit and simply doing the right thing – helped shape his personality. They also made their mark on the company he founded in 1957, and that his family owns to this day.
In a tiny lower-level office in a St. Louis Cadillac dealership, he started out with a fleet of seven cars, one employee and a commitment to provide a uniquely personal brand of customer service.
Jack developed a simple but enduring business philosophy that still guides our efforts as the largest rental car operation in the world: “Take care of your customers and your employees first, and the profits will follow." As his company grew, the Navy veteran expanded operations into new markets and named the company after an aircraft carrier on which he had served, the World War II USS Enterprise.
The ship was the most decorated vessel in the U.S. Navy fleet before its decommissioning in 2012. The Secretary of the U.S. Navy has since announced the Enterprise name will live on as the official moniker for the CVN-80, the next nuclear aircraft carrier to be constructed. This marks the ninth time the U.S. Navy will have a ship called Enterprise in its fleet.
To learn more, please see our Military Heritage site, which highlights employment opportunities and supports transitioning military personnel, veterans, members of the National Guard and Reserve, and military families. For more information about Enterprise’s business principles, also check out our Founding Values and Cultural Compass sites, which focus on our operations, diversity and inclusion, workplace quality, business ethics, public affairs and philanthropy, and environmental conservation.