FourthStreet Founder Colin Devine
Luxury ground transportation industry veteran Colin Devine is pleased to announce his FourthStreet venture is setting its sights on keeping international trade at home to create Irish jobs and opportunities.
Knowing that the responsibilities for a transportation company typically ended at the Dublin Airport, Devine opened FourthStreet in 2021 to capture the international travel needs for his Irish- and UK-based clients, combining logistical expertise and his extensive global affiliate partner network. He developed plans for international growth while taking an MBA at Trinity College, Dublin, in 2019. This new undertaking was launched with key anchor clients, serving prominent Irish export companies and entertainment clients, for high-level board meeting and events across the United States, London, and other European cities with one seamless point of contact.
“Irish exports have reached a record of EUR 197 billion in 2023. We have clients who spend more than twenty times their Irish transport budget with international network companies located outside of Ireland,” says Devine. With that in mind, he set out to ensure that his clients trusted his company while traveling outside of Ireland.
The outlook for growth looks promising as business travel reached 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, according to the Global Business Travel Association, with a full recovery expected by 2024. The value of the luxury taxi and chauffeured transportation is expected to reach USD 102 billion by 2025 globally.
“For international, it’s a very different business model,” Devine continues. “Our overseas revenue was less than 5 percent of sales. With this new venture, 90 percent of our revenue comes from outside of Ireland. It’s about fine-tuning the offering to meet client expectations across different time zones. We serve a small niche of complex high-level transportation programs; we source, negotiate, and manage the local supplier relationships for our clients who put their trust in us. It’s much more about transportation management and removing those pain points for high-level guests and travel managers in markets that they may not be familiar with.”
Since its 2021 debut, FourthStreet today employs nine people between Dublin and the US. The company’s international bookings increased 150 percent in 2023, serving high-touch clients and guests for corporate travel and entertainment industry events, in the US, the UK, and major cities across Europe and the Middle East.
“We treat stars like they are ordinary people and ordinary people like they are stars,” says Devine. “The back seat experience for the guests should be consistent when you are working with the elite companies. At the centre of everything we do is the booking client, the executive assistant, travel managers, and the event planners. We are really focused on the booker experience and touch points that make their lives easier when booking in multiple markets,” says Devine.
Visit 4stchauffeurs.com for more information.
[02.20.24]