Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
Patrick Lawrence, general manager of Hartwell Supercentre, reveals how £2m of investment has helped the group expand the business in this special Dealer Insight sponsored by AutoProtect
Two years and £2m have enabled Patrick Lawrence and his team to welcome three new franchises to Hartwell on Oxford’s Motor Park
Hartwell may be best known as a Ford business but the Oxfordshire-based dealer group, rated 39 in the Motor Trader Top 200, has been expanding into other franchises, with three of them concentrated on a single site on Oxford’s Motor Park.
What is now known as the Hartwell Supercentre is just reaching the end of a major refurbishment lasting more than two years and costing close to £2m. According to general manager Patrick Lawrence, the project has been a roller-coaster period for the business with staff enduring difficult working conditions.
Lawrence, also the group’s used car manager, was appointed to head up the new outlet when Hartwell purchased a solus Renault dealer on the site in December 2011.
The building also included an empty former Nissan showroom into which was placed a temporary Citroën business. Soon after the group’s sole Renault outlet also became the sole Dacia outlet, then in January this year Hartwell added its first Seat outlet to the site.
Hartwell took the brave decision to carry out the refurbishment while also establishing the franchises and Lawrence admits this presented challenges.
“The refurbishment turned out to be far more in-depth than we initially thought – not one internal wall here now was there before, only the outside shell was retained,” he said.
“I have huge respect for staff across the business who worked thorugh this – it’s very difficult to deliver great customer service when you are waiting for a JCB to go across in front of you, or you are struggling to hear what the customer is saying because someone is drilling a hole in the wall.”
The company realised it would not move forward greatly during this period but it needed to make the most of the customer base it had acquired.
“We assumed the Renault business was for sale because it wasn’t performing to the operator’s liking and the database reflected that.”
“We analysed it, de-cluttered and de-duplicated it, and then sent a letter out to everyone advising them we were here and giving them some special offers.”
Radio promotions were heavily used, making the most of Hartwell’s established name in Oxfordshire. Lawrence believes this was important particularly with the Renault franchise, which was subjected to its product cull within weeks of Hartwell joining the network. Lawrence, however, saw this as a positive move.
“We’d reviewed the franchise and realised there were a number of models that were not performing – Renault took what a lot of its dealers thought was a good option. But I think customers needed the reassurance that a big company such as Hartwell had taken on the franchise.”
“Most of our key people have worked their way up through the company
Customers were attracted by innovative promotions such as Sign Your Name, involving a white Renault cabriolet which was promoted within the local area and people invited to sign their name on it with a marker pen.
“We then picked one of the names and they won a brand new car – it was different and it had an impact as opposed to a standard sales advert.”
The business also needed to launch a customer service intitiative to retain existing customers and win new ones. This process was initially helped by importing management staff from other Hartwell centres.
“It was key that we had the right people to start with, or the job would be twice as difficult, so the service, sales and business managers for example had all worked for me previously.
“Most of our key people have worked their way up through the company – it’s rare we fill a senior staff position externally.”
Meanwhile the business needed to introduce Renault’s newly launched Dacia budget brand, a process Lawrence said has gone extremely well.
“It has hit the nail on the head by producing tried-and-tested vehicles and engines, that are great value, while the Renault association gives the brand kudos.
“It’s bringing in customers who maybe wouldn’t have looked at Seat or Citroën, and while you can’t pre-judge a customer we did have to get across to our sales force that the Dacia customer would generally be focused first and foremost on price.”
He also believes the company’s commitment to training and the small size of the senior management team are key to maintaining employee confidence and thus high CSI scores.
“We are not like other plcs, an oil tanker, where a massive number of decisions have to be made before the final one. We can make snap decisions quickly, react to market forces as and when and the employees like that – they like to know that the managing director is as accessible as any other staff member.”
After two years of disruption Lawrence can now see normality resuming.
“The manufacturers are very understanding regarding the changes we are going through. We’ve delivered on the majority of our targets since opening and on a month-by-month basis we are showing increases.”
He is particularly praiseworthy of the group’s most recent addition.
“Of all the franchises I’ve known Seat has been the most enjoyable start-up. The manufacturer has been incredible in helping us set up the business. Seat has the Volkswagen quality with a lot of Spanish flair – they are very positive and open to ideas as to how you can best promote the brand.”
Based on the sales and footfall already generated Lawrence expects rapid progress.
“People are still finding us, learning about us, but we are already seeing massive increases in sales across the board – new, used, commercials and in the workshop.
“They are at much higher levels than I expected – I thought we would have to pedal a lot harder to get to where we are today.”
Andrew Charman
Hartwell Oxford Supercentre Fact File
Location: Kidlington, Oxford
Brands: Renault, Dacia, Citroën, Seat
Established: December 2011
Staff: 52 (21 in aftersales)
Ramps: 15 (including MoT)
