Burnt Tree, the corporate commercial vehicle rental company, has been acquired by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the global car hire company.
The move, completed for an undisclosed sum, adds Burnt Tree’s 400 employees, 17,000 vehicles, proprietary fleet management technologies and a network of 20 branches to the Enterprise range of products.
The acquisition takes the number of commercial vehicles operated by Enterprise to 25,000 and greatly expands its coverage of the corporate and public sector commercial vehicle rental sector.

In the short term Enterprise Flex-E-Rent commercial vehicles and the Burnt Tree business will be run separately with a view to creating a combined entity based in Burnt Tree’s home town of Shrewsbury.

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When approached by Leasing Life about when the full merger would take place and what affect this would have on staff numbers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car said in a statement: "For now, Enterprise Flex-E-Rent and Burnt Tree will operate as separate brands and businesses. Burnt Tree has a huge amount of experience in the long-term rental market, which is why we were attracted to them in the first place. Our objective now is to fully understand the new business, and later, consider how best to integrate Flex-E-Rent and Burnt Tree. Therefore it is simply too early to determine any impact."

As part of the deal, Richard Metcalfe, former chief executive officer at Burnt Tree, has stepped down and taken an advisory role within the combined company.

The head of the combined businesses will be Danny Glynn, director of Enterprise Flex-E-Rent.

In a statement Metcalfe said: "Last year we stated our ambition to become the leading and largest business in our industry. In time, this agreement will allow Burnt Tree to achieve its full potential to become the market leader. It will become part of the world’s largest vehicle rental company, which, like Burnt Tree, is privately owned.

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"I know that there is both the vision and resources to grow the business over the long-term, which means there will be opportunities for people here. I would like to thank everyone sincerely at Burnt Tree for all their hard work and for making the business such a success. This agreement marks the next phase of growth for the business."