Franchise Services of North America Inc. Announces Appointment of William Plamondon as President of Advantage Rent A Car

TSX-V Trading Symbol: FSN

CALGARY, May 3, 2013 /CNW/ - FRANCHISE SERVICES OF NORTH AMERICA INC. ("FSNA" or the "Company") (FSN.V) is pleased to announce the appointment of William Plamondon as President of Advantage Rent A Car.

Mr. Plamondon will lead the Company's integration of the business of Simply Wheelz LLC dba Advantage Rent A Car ("Advantage"), into FSNA's operations.  Advantage became a wholly-owned subsidiary of FSNA through the recently completed merger between FSNA and Adreca Holdings Corp.

Mr. Plamondon has considerable experience in the rental car industry and began his career in franchise development at Budget Rent A Car in 1978.  As Vice President, franchised operations, Mr. Plamondon built Budget Rent A Car's functions in field operations, training and development, and acquisition and refranchising.  From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Plamondon served as the Executive Vice President of sales and marketing and later Executive Vice President, North America.  In 1992, at the direction of Ford Motor Company and Budget's Board of Directors, Mr. Plamondon was named President of Budget Rent A Car and was appointed Chief Executive Officer the following year.  In this capacity, Mr. Plamondon was responsible for acquisitions integration, organizational development, and cost restructuring at the $2.5 billion company, whose more than 3200 locations spanned 117 countries. Following his successful years at Budget, Mr. Plamondon served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ANC Rental Corporation, the parent company of Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental, a $2.5 billion dollar global company with over 14,000 employees.

Commenting on his appointment as President of Advantage, Mr. Plamondon said, "I am so pleased to be joining FSNA at this critical juncture. I have been impressed with the current Advantage team and look forward to putting my experience to work toward building another great brand in car rental."

The Company would also like to welcome David Mitchell as Chief Financial Officer of Advantage and Brian Cicco as Vice President of Human Resources at Advantage.

Commenting on the appointment of the new officers and senior management team of Advantage, Thomas P. McDonnell, III, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman said, "We are pleased to welcome Bill, David and Brian to the FSNA team. In particular, Bill's years of experience in the car rental space will be invaluable as we continue the development and execution of our plans to build the fourth largest car rental company in North America."

About FSNA

FSNA is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company and its subsidiaries own the following brands: Advantage Rent A Car, U-Save Car & Truck Rental®, U-Save Car Sales, Rent-A-Wreck of Canada, PractiCar, Auto Rental Resource Center ("ARRC"), Xpress Rent A Car and Peakstone Financial Services.

Advantage Rent A Car is currently positioned as a brand, and targets consumers, in the value-oriented segment of the U.S. rental car market.  As of July 2013, Advantage will operate from approximately 75 locations servicing airports and five additional satellite locations in hotels in Hawaii and Las Vegas and has a fleet of approximately 23,000 cars, ranging from economy cars to SUVs.  Advantage primarily services the leisure segment of the rental car market and predominantly operates in key domestic leisure destinations, including California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Hawaii and Arizona.

U-Save, together with its subsidiary ARRC, has over 1,100 locations throughout the United States and is one of North America's largest franchise car rental companies. Having primarily serviced the local market for the past 30 years, the Company is expanding into the airport market with plans for the opening of airport locations in the top 30 markets in the United States and the major airports in Canada. U-Save currently services 28 airport markets in 11 different states and 7 countries. U-Save Car Sales is an expansion of the U-Save brand into the car sales market, and provides goods and services to car sales operators looking to affiliate with a national brand.

Practicar Systems Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of FSNA) owns the rights to the Rent-A-Wreck® and the PractiCar® trademarks for all of Canada. The Rent-A-Wreck® system operates a network of 69 franchise locations from coast-to-coast in Canada, providing a range of vehicle rental, leasing and sales options to its customers. The Rent-A-Wreck® system has been in continuous operation in Canada since 1976.

Caution

This press release is incorporated by reference into the Circular in respect of the merger between FSNA and Adreca Holdings Corp. and other transaction contained therein.  Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Circular and in this press release, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of FSNA should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements made in this news release are forward looking in nature, including statements made with respect to Advantage. The words "may," "could," "should," "would," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," or "outlook" and similar expressions often identify forward-looking information. By their nature, forward-looking statements require FSNA to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by FSNA. Although FSNA believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because FSNA can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. FSNA's forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. In addition, the forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this news release, and except as required by applicable law, FSNA undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Franchise Services of North America Inc.