Mar. 30--When Bob Fore opened the first U-Save auto rental franchise in Myrtle Beach nine years ago, he had nine cars to rent.
Today, he has 403.
That's what happens when a man who loves cars finds his niche in a beach town where business and tourism are about to explode.
'The tourist market, you could just see it starting to boom,' Fore said. 'The airport was growing faster than the roads. It just seemed logical that would be the area to get into.'
Bob Kemp, director of Myrtle Beach International Airport, said car rental counters at the airport have in creased from five to eight in the last two years.
The airport's concession revenue from car rentals in 1997 was $1.741 million. Last year, it was $2.540 million.
Fore said about 55 percent of his business is tourist-driven.
'Golf is extremely important,' he said.
Fore dreamed of renting mini-vans to golfers and said Sands Properties was his first big corporate client. A U-Save location still oper ates out of a kiosk in the Sand Dunes Hotel.
Today, the hotel is one of five U-Save rental locations in the area.
Two years ago, Fore opened the first U-Save franchise in an airport ter minal at Myrtle Beach International Airport. Other locations include Third Avenue South in Myrtle Beach and Sea Mountain Highway in North Myrtle Beach. Fore's U-Save oper ation has the second largest fleet in the country after Boston, Mass. The newest location, on S.C. 544 near Wal-Mart, includes the nation's first U-Save car sales.
Fore hopes the car sales location will be the flagship of his operation.
The business will allow him to dispose of rental cars locally without having to drive them to distant auc tions where they would be re-sold to dealers.
David Moorhead, general sales manager for the U-Save dealership, said the company's goal is to 'elim inate the middle man and pass the savings along to the people.'
A variety of current model cars, as well as sport utilities, commercial trucks and passenger vans, will be sold at the S.C. 544 location. All ve hicles will be under factory warranty and may include extended warran ties. Because vehicles are nearly new, full financing is available.
'I believe that the Myrtle Beach area is made for this,' Moorhead said, 'We've got a major service in dustry and in that service industry, people are pretty budget-conscious.
Any regular person walking off the street can get into one of our cars.'
Fore said he has car sales in his blood. His father, Walker Fore, ow ned an automobile dealership in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Seated in his office on Third Avenue South, a framed dollar bill over his shoulder, Fore said he moved to Myrtle Beach from Vien na, Va., to escape the frantic pace of the Washington, D.C., suburb.
The year was 1986, and Fore was general manager of the largest Chev rolet dealership in the country.
'I had to get to some place where I could relax,' Fore said. 'Everyone around me was dying of heart at tacks. My life had to slow down.'
He had already made a serious ca reer decision by leaving his work as a civil engineer.
A native of Winston-Salem, N.C., Fore studied civil engineering at the University of Maryland but didn't feel satisfied by the career he had chosen.
He told his wife Lois that he want ed to go back into the auto business.
'At the time, it seemed like a crazy idea,' Lois Fore said. 'It honestly did, because he had a good position. But he just felt like had had potential. His desire was always to have his own business, his own dealership.'
After moving to South Carolina and opening Crossroads Auto Sales in North Myrtle Beach, Fore thought a rental car business would be an additonal way to turn a profit.
'U-Save, at the time, appealed to me as a good choice because their fees were not extraordinary,' Fore said. 'They didn't charge you a huge percentage of your gross sales, and I liked the people.'
Fore's first U-Save rental location grew between 1991 and 1993 into a 25-car operation. He found a niche in Myrtle Beach by servicing local bu sinesses: hotels, campgrounds and automobile dealerships. Other car rental businesses at the time focused on the fly-in market.
In 1992, Fore opened the Third Avenue South location. 'That allowed us to actually tap into the air port business,' Fore said. 'We ran shuttles back and forth for a couple of years.'
Two years ago, counter space became available at Myrtle Beach In ternational Airport and U-Save picked up a prime location.
Timing was perfect, with a proliferation of low-cost airlines beginning to service Myrtle Beach Inter national.
'It's really leveled the playing field for smaller companies to com pete in the airport rental industry,' Fore said. 'The airplane fares have been he catalyst for that. These low cost carriers are just boosting that market right up.'
Low fares have brought more frequent weekend visitors to the Grand Strand on airlines like Spirit, Vanguard, AirTran and the former Myrtle Beach Jet Express.
'Now, you're getting people flying in on Friday and out on Sunday,' Fore said. 'Today versus last year, I have 100 more cars I've rented at the airport.'
Revenues have also increased dramatically.
'We've been jumping about 30, 40 percent a year,' Fore said.
While doing business plans for the S.C. 544 location, Fore came across a business plan from 1993 in which he was projecting a fleet of 75 cars and $450,000 worth of business.
'Last year, we peaked out at $3.2 million in business and 375 cars,' Fore said.
U-Save franchises are also growing by leaps and bounds nationwide.
In 1997, the company had 400 locations. It now has 1,350.
Based in Jackson, Miss., the corporation is headed by former franch isee Tom McDonnell, who recently bought several small rental operations and acquired 700 new locations, mainly on the West coast.
Fore is already planning to move his franchise outside the Myrtle Beach market, possibly to Florida.
'It's going to be a necessity to have some place farther south with a different season where we can inter change cars,' Fore said. 'If we open up in Orlando, those profits are go ing to come back to us.'
Fore said one of his biggest goals is 'building a company that brings revenues to Myrtle Beach, instead of taking money out of Myrtle Beach.'
U-Save employs about 40 people locally.
'Seeing our young employees buying houses, that just tickles us,' Fore said.
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(c) 2000, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
