MT Dealer Insight: Leslies Suzuki, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight-based Leslies Suzuki has won the brand’s National Dealer of the Year Award for a second time beating some much larger dealerships. We check out what it’s getting so right

here might have been the odd raised eyebrow amongst some of Suzuki’s larger dealers when a small outlet in what might appear a limited territory on the Isle of Wight was named the brand’s National Dealer of the Year for 2023, but they should not have been that surprised – Leslies Suzuki had previously won the award in 2018, together with a host of other accolades for its sales and aftersales.

While outwardly a typical small dealership, the Suzuki outlet is part of the largest motor group on the island. Started originally by Leslie Vanassche and now run by his son Graham and grandson Louis, Leslies Motors also holds Hyundai, Kia, Mazda and Toyota franchises.

According to Suzuki manager Keith Ashdown taking on the brand in 1999 was a step into the unknown. “We needn’t had worried,” he recalled. “We set up the dealership on a small site which was also a filling station – the petrol pumps soon had to go when we realised the potential of Suzuki and needed the space and to improve the forecourt area to take on more stock.”

Ashdown has been there from the start, joining Leslies 37 years ago at the age of 17. He started in the aftersales department, which he believes gave him the best possible grounding for his current role. “I quickly realised the importance of looking after your current customers who in turn become your advocates – on the Isle of Wight where word of mouth can make or break you, it is so important to have the right members of staff in place to execute our strategy and grow with us.”

Ashdown believes that sales and aftersales working hand-in-hand Is a vital aspect of the centre’s success, and something you don’t see in some large dealerships where the sales and service departments don’t always interact closely enough. “There’s that sort of wall between them,” he said. “I can’t do my job as sales manager without the aftersales guys, I need to keep them onside and they need me selling cars to fill the workshop. We in the sales department look at who’s booked in for a service, there might for example be a customer we would like to put in a new Vitara for a day – we operate very closely together and it works ever so well.”

The centre continually prioritises customer retention, focusing on PCPs in sales, and Service Plans in aftersales, using the E Dynamics plans across the group. The Suzuki Service Promise, which sets a number of standards extending to such aspects as washing each customer’s car after work is completed, also encourages retention; “Customers get quite excited when we wash their car.”

According to Ashdown, however, the real backbone of the business is simply encouraging a family feel among both its staff and customers. “We are a family-run business catering for the Suzuki family. And that’s exactly how our customers feel – part of something special and they come back time and time again. I am still selling cars to some original customers back from the early 2000s, and to the next generations of their families as well.

“We don’t have a ‘gin palace’ dealership – it’s an older site though we’ve had a refit recently. We could move to a bigger site but where we are, right in the middle of the island with a main road going right past our door, works really well because of the people we have here.”

The centre enjoys excellent staff retention with several team members having worked there for many years. “My service manager was my apprentice when I was in aftersales, and I had a technician retire at the end of last year who had been here since the start. We get on with each other, we socialise a lot – there are friendships here, great camaraderie.”

The group’s status on the island also helps with staff development. “Because we have quite a few dealerships across the group we can promote staff around them – I had a sales exec who was ready to move into a management role which I didn’t have for him but he went into our Toyota site.”

Ashdown believes this family focus across the business and among its customer base was a vital factor in weathering the storm of the Covid period and the challenges since. “Our loyal customers stuck with us – like everyone else within the motor industry, we were unsure of the future but with leadership and direction from Graham and Louis, we did what we do best and all pulled together to work differently, but to reach the same objectives. Reiterating the Suzuki saying, we are ‘Good Different‘.”

So what about more recent challenges? The biggest, according to Ashdown, has been obtaining sufficient stock, though he added that this situation has improved while the work done by the dealership in securing orders has brought dividends. “We had built up a good order base and so when in quarter four last year it was quiet we were still sending out cars we had taken orders for in the summer.

“This year we don’t have that so we’re starting afresh a bit and I think a major focus in 2024 will be on used car values. They seemed to dip quite considerably at the end of quarter four last year, but looking at projections I think that’s going to plateau.”

He added that having had a couple of years when getting customers into new cars was “quite an easy job,” due to the Covid throwback of the equity in their trade-ins, such aspects are likely to be more of a challenge in future, particularly with the cost-of-living crisis.

The ‘captive audience’ of an island-based territory has been diluted in recent years by the rise in online sales with customers able to look all over the country for their potential buy, but far from being a drawback this has according to Ashdown provided the dealership with an advantage.

“People do go online now so we have to be more competitive – we sell online and because we are on an island we have a lot of low-mileage used stock which we are able to market nationally. We have our guys on the mainland delivering cars every week. Yes there are cost and timescale factors to cope with being on the island but it’s not all challenges.”

Leslies puts a lot of effort into online marketing alongside its sales. “We have a marketing executive who is absolutely spot-on, on Facebook, Instagram, the website and such. You have to be out there, popping up on people’s Facebook feeds, it’s imperative. We used to place ads in newspapers and radio but no longer – our best adverts are our customers.”

The group is not averse to direct marketing – a highlight of the year is the Isle of Wight Motorshow, held in March and now run entirely by Leslies for its brands; “We have enough franchises to do it. The show is held in a massive hall at a school in the centre of the island, each franchise has around eight cars on display and we have test drives available outside – it works ever so well.”

Suzuki’s model range also suits the island, too, residents tending to prefer small cars and Leslies selling many Swift and Ignis models as a result. A new Swift is due to launch in the second quarter of 2024 and Ashdown is greatly looking forward to its arrival.

What of the future, however, and the inevitable arrival of electric vehicles? Suzuki has been slow to adopt full BEVs, with the brand’s first model not due on sale until 2025, but Ashdown believes the brand has been very clever in promoting the hybrid models launched by Suzuki through an agreement with Toyota. “Price-wise EVs are still very much above the average customer’s price budget, whereas hybrids are much more affordable.

“EVs are coming to the island and when they do it will work well because people don’t do long journeys here. The more I get used to having EVs in my showroom the more I will focus on them – but they are still at the back of my mind at the moment as I have a job to do this year.”

Ashdown is confident about the future based on the strength of the Suzuki brand and what he described as the “second to none support” Suzuki GB gives to its dealers. “The vision of Dale Wyatt, director automobile, and David Kateley, general manager sales operations, has been instrumental to the continued and future success of Suzuki dealers in the UK – with clear objectives, and the tools to reach them, I have no doubt we will have a great 2024 with the launch of the all-new Swift and our first EV during 2025.”