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With Vertu one of the few big name groups to remain in the black, Robert Forrester has set himself a new personal objective which is like to pay-off come year-end time.
He will be thinking more about how to build aftersales and will be encouraging his staff to do likewise.
Last week the company released a respectable set of interims for its first six months and tucked away below all the new and used car sales is the statistic that 45.7 per cent of the group’s gross profit for the period came from the aftersales departments – the unsung heroes of many a dealership.
He freely admitted to Motor Trader that while he keeps in regular contact with new and used sales managers the aftersales heads were not on his weekly email list; they are now.
With the Bank of England coming ever closer to admitting that we are in a recession the aftersales department takes on a new importance as consumers will inevitably run cars for longer and this will become an increasingly important profit centre in the short, medium and long term.