"Every day is a new beginning of a new year,” says Yossi Dahan, head of the Eldan Group, Israel’s leading auto leasing and rental car conglomerate, which he co-founded 54 years ago in 1967. Sitting comfortably in his spacious office at company headquarters in Tel Aviv, wearing rimless glasses and a friendly, crinkly smile, Dahan’s optimism reflects his personal experiences and successes in life.
Yossi Dahan was born in Morocco in 1941. To gain a greater understanding of his family roots, Dahan hands me a colorful book in Hebrew, entitled ‘Poems of the Heart -- Stories of Moroccan emigres in songs and rhymes,’ which features poems describing the lives of Moroccans who moved to Israel, along with photos of families from Morocco and Israel. The book contains a page describing Yossi Dahan and his family. Dahan’s father, a rabbi, was born in Salé, in northwest Morocco, near the capital city of Rabat. Tragically, he died when Yossi was four years old. Photos of Yossi appear in the book – as a baby with his father, in school in Morocco and in Israel, with his mother and family, and visiting his father’s grave in Morocco, which he renovated.
In February 1955, Yossi made aliyah alone at the age of fourteen with Aliyat Hanoar, arriving at the dormitory of the Neve Amiel school near Sdeh Yaakov in the Jezreel Valley. “We worked half a day and studied the other half of the day in the agricultural moshav,” he recalls. Dahan studied there for two years, then went to Kibbutz Saad before attending the technical school of the Ordnance Corps (Heyl Himush). He then entered the IDF, became an officer, and was discharged from the army in August 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War.
Dahan, who lived in Ashkelon (he now lives in Tel Aviv), then embarked on his business career. He had trained both in insurance and in real estate but instead decided to form a car rental company with a fellow Moroccan emigre, whose last name was Elbaz. Eldan, a contraction of the founders’ names – Elbaz and Dahan – was born. Recalling his entry into the car rental business, Dahan says, “When I was discharged from the army in 1967 and went into the car rental business, everyone said I was making a mistake.” He was starting a new business shortly after a major recession in Israel, and few felt that he would succeed. In addition, Dahan had been very successful in the IDF, and he says with a smile, “In Israel of 1967, if you were an officer, you were considered second only to God.” Dahan decided to try out the car rental business for six months and told himself that he could always return to his IDF job if the company didn’t succeed. “At first, I bought four Contessas (a Japanese car that was assembled in Israel),” he recalls. Then we sold all four, and I purchased eight more.” In the wake of the Six-Day War, the country grew rapidly, and throngs of tourists began to arrive. Eldan flourished. “The country grew, and tourism grew. The path proved itself, and the rest is history,” he says.
In 1980, Eldan opened additional branches, including one in Tel Aviv, and in 1986, the company opened an office at Ben Gurion Airport. Today, the company operates 24 branches throughout the country and is active in many different fields, including car rental in Israel, operational leasing, private leasing, car rental abroad, car sales, insurance, hotels and vehicle transportation, and other holdings.
Yossi Dahan’s two sons run the company on a day-to-day basis, but he still comes to his office each day, spending four or five hours daily at the company headquarters. Yossi does not want to stop working. “When you succeed in something,” he says, “you want to succeed even more. If you stop, then what will you do the next week?” he asks rhetorically. “I like what I do, I see the fruits of my labor, and I can help others.”
In late July, Dahan demonstrated his generosity and willingness to help with a substantial NIS 21 million gift to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon that will be used to complete the hospital’s cardiology building. “When you can do something like this,” he says, “it gives you the satisfaction that you have accomplished something significant in life.”
Today, most of Eldan’s car business is in leasing, and Dahan says that the company leases approximately 25,000 vehicles. Interestingly, he says that while fewer tourists arrived during the pandemic, resulting in fewer rentals, more Israelis purchased cars through Eldan’s car sales because people preferred to travel in their own vehicles rather than risk becoming infected by utilizing crowded public transportation.
The biggest issue confronting the car leasing and rental business, says Dahan, is the future of electric cars. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to how the secondary car market will accept electric vehicles. Dahan notes that there are a number of lesser-known brands in the electric car market and predicts that there will be greater acceptance and competition when more of the major brands enter the market. He says that usage of electric cars for short-term rentals will require a greater number of charging stations throughout the country. “It will take time,” he adds.
Eldan, says Dahan, is working on additional strategies for further company growth, but he notes that it is difficult to plan these days in the shadow of the corona pandemic. “What seems promising today may not turn out to be successful in the future,” he says. “Corona has caused a great deal of uncertainty, and people are afraid to make investments, especially in older, more established industries.”
What are Dahan’s personal expectations for the coming year? Dahan, who is eighty years old and has nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, chuckles and says, “I no longer buy green bananas. When you are young, you take good health for granted. My hopes and expectation are for good health, and to enjoy what God allows us to do. I pray that our children remain healthy and fulfill their dreams, and I pray that the country will continue to do well, offering a quality of life for everyone.”
This article was written in cooperation with Eldan