Dealer Profile: Fine Cars

Fine Cars proudly proclaims on its website to be the UK’s biggest-selling approved-used Kia dealer of all time.

The family-owned company has a string of awards, particularly for its used performance, all the more impressive as it operates across just two compact locations. Its main sales outlet is on the corner of two residential streets, yards from the beach, in the Hampshire village of Lee-on-the-Solent.

Established in 1982, Fine Cars has been a solus Kia dealer since 2003 when it parted company with Hyundai. In 2014 its Lee-on-Solent showroom was redeveloped, just after Brett Duke, son of the founder and a director of the company, had transferred from the nearby Gosport outlet to run it.

Your used sales record is impressive, how have you achieved it? We are the top-selling Kia Approved Used dealer in the UK and there is no real science to it apart from being very efficient. Capacity is important and being able to take the vehicles when they become available.

We have invested significantly in our online presence and we market the product well via the web. Our sales department systems are also very well tuned. I learnt and honed the right techniques as a sales executive in our Gosport branch and brought them with me when I came here in 2013 to run the business.

We now have six sales staff all doing their job in a consistent manner, especially important in such areas as part-exchanges. The standard of vehicles on the Kia Approved Used programme is so high that internal reconditioning work remains low so there are no unexpected additional costs. That level of consistency has enabled us to confidently make the most of the programme.

What’s your approach to marketing? I am quite forward-thinking with regard to online marketing – it’s clearly the way to go. It is completely measurable, instantly able to be adapted and cost-effective. Advertising in newspapers and even on radio is complete and utter guesswork.

I’ve seen great success in buying internet domain names, such as approvedusedkia.co.uk, and many variations on the same phrase. People search for
used cars this way and having these web names drives traffic to us. I admit that we currently still use the post for service reminders and such like. We don’t do a lot of email marketing but this is an area I want to focus on.

Are there challenges in keeping the right level of stock? There are occasional supply issues, but when stock is available I take as much of it as I can, and as a result I don’t have issues at times of low stock. I always have a good selection to offer the customer.

How is the used market at present? It is really strong. Kia is maintaining its market share and continuing to grow. Today it is a very credible brand. But as a used offering the cars are still excellent value for money. Kia is the best value approved used manufacturer out there.

Is there a skill to determining a used customer from a new customer? It’s not for us to determine, it’s based on customer expectation – what have they gone out into the marketplace for? There are various schemes now that enable accessibility into new products when the customer might not have considered them before.

Most of the used cars we sell are not to existing Kia owners, but conquest. Kia is enlarging its market as a whole, not simply turning used into new. The brand has come a long way while not forgetting its traditional customers. That might happen one day but at present we are enjoying great relationships all round.

How much of an issue is finding and retaining the right staff? Two of our sales staff have been with us more than 20 years; we enjoy very low staff turnover all round but particularly in sales. Staff are rewarded fairly and we have a loyal customer base, local customers who come back time and time again and deal with the same sales person, building good relationships.

Our company strapline is “your entire satisfaction is our minimum standard,” and our values as a dealership go hand in hand with the latest Kia “Family-like Care” programme. We were delighted with the launch of this as we’d already been doing it.

Kia has identified, possibly since taking on the larger, more impersonal dealer groups, that growing its market share is not all about conquest business but also retention of existing customers. Kia has felt it needs to drive the message with the Family-like Care programme, to set itself apart from other manufacturers. But family-run owner-driver businesses have always been doing that because if they didn’t, most of them would not still be around. At one time customer care was the only significant attraction we had.

What is the biggest challenge of being a car dealer today? For the business one of the biggest challenges would normally be maintaining high market share. But because the product is so good it’s not hard work to sell it. Personally I find the biggest challenge is a lack of time. I’m very hands-on in the business, but I’ve learnt and been encouraged to delegate more, and to have more people around me. We’ve gradually been able to do this in recent years and it is getting easier.

Is there a pressure to grow your dealership at the rate that Kia is growing, to invest more? No. Kia is a breath of fresh air compared to our previous experiences. We revamped this showroom in 2014 and while it was below the size they like to see, they’ve been very good to us, easy to work with
and understanding of our position in the area.

Any dealership in a residential area will always face challenges with expansion, and be subject to long planning delays, but Kia appreciates the concerns and needs of the small dealer. While the brand is now signing up larger dealer groups we still feel valued. As a smaller dealer we also see opportunities with Kia that larger multi-franchise outlets might have problems with. For example we are one of 11 dealers nationally on the Kia rental programme – it works because we are purely Kia.

With two locations we did consider adding a second franchise to our portfolio. But Kia is what we know and we have a good relationship with the manufacturer, so we decided to stay with Kia. Being a solus franchise works very well.