Skip to main content
your business magazine

Peter Dinnick, vice president of business development at Rosedale Livery Ltd., stands in front of one of the company's new Fusion Hybrid L Livery Sedans.

Employee of the month

Who: Peter Dinnick, vice-president of Toronto-based Rosedale Livery Ltd.

What: Boosted revenue by 20 per cent by developing an international network of affiliates.

In his own words: I started right after 9/11. Our business had probably dropped off 40 per cent in the immediate aftermath. About 60 per cent of our business is going to the airport or picking up at the airport — we do very little retail limousine work, like the weddings and the proms — and people just weren't flying any more.

I was hired to develop business. We wanted to find new revenue streams. We knew our clients were travelling somewhere, so we decided that we could book their travel in those cities.

We started affiliations with other companies. We do a lot of due diligence — we go down and meet these providers and make sure the service level is there. So when you're dropped off at the airport here by Rosedale and you're picked up in New York, it's a similar service all the way through.

Similar cars, similar uniforms, that kind of thing.

We're sending business to providers in other cities, and we can quickly become one of their biggest clients. They bend over backward for us. And Rosedale is becoming the Toronto provider for many of these companies — 97 of our affiliates send work back to us. Affiliates now provide between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of our total revenue.

Now we have an environmental kick going on. We've added hybrid sedans to our fleet — we're using Ford Fusion hybrids — and what we do is, we stretch them by six inches. So it's much roomier in the back. Customers love it.

All the major corporations now ask us: "What are your green policies?"

As told to Noreen Rasbach

Employee of the month is a regular feature in Your Business magazine. This is from the June, 2010 issue.

Interact with The Globe