Last year, the firm took on 30 major new contracts, and over the next four years is eyeing an expansion of its leased fleet from 125,000 to 150,000 units.

This year has started better then even last year, Brennan said, with more contract wins in the first quarter than 2010.

‘We expect to see more contract wins this year, but overall our growth aspirations are fairly conservative, we believe. The structure of our three-tier account management team is allowing us to pick up some good wins and also to retain the vast majority of our clients, and we are also seeing considerably more tendering going on.

‘The last year or so has seen a lot of activity in this area, perhaps as post-recession firms are taking a look at the way they are doing everything. Also, what has become evident is that we are having to talk to a lot more people – not just fleet managers but often representatives from HR, finance, health and safety, corporate social responsibility, benefits and so on, which makes the tender process considerably more involved.’

Brennan also has high hopes for the firm’s salary sacrifice scheme, which is getting considerable interest. However, he was wary about putting a figure on exactly how much of a business opportunity there was in it.

‘There’s no doubt there are a huge number of potential salary sacrifice customers out there, but in our experience the success of these schemes depends very much on communication before during and after the decision is made by employees. They need very clear information on what is being saved, how that figure is reached and what they are entitled to, and we’ve also found that once they have their car, they need regular reminding of the benefits and how much better off they are.’

Brennan said he’d like to see a conversion rate of between 5 and 10% for employees qualifying for salary sacrifice schemes.