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Guy Foster, managing director of Southampton dealer Newmans, reveals how he built up a prosperous business with strong support from Suzuki in this special Dealer Insight sponsored by AutoProtect.
An interview with Suzuki sales and marketing director Dale Wyatt in last month’s Motor Trader concluded that it was a “good time to be a Suzuki dealer”.
Guy Foster would certainly concur. Foster is managing director of Newmans Suzuki in Southampton, a showroom he opened for the previous owners in 1995 and purchased from them 10 years later.
He has since built a reputation for a family-orientated business highly regarded in the Suzuki network, while also adding an Isuzu franchise in 2013. So far in 2014 the business has enjoyed 4% return on sales while also recording high CSI scores.
A large part of this, Foster believes, is down to the brand’s attitude to its dealers. “Suzuki allows us to be entrepreneurial. We have a simple set of rules we have to follow, but we are allowed to get on with the job,” he said.
“As a Suzuki dealer you get the feeling of being in a family business, rather than the sterile glass box environment that a lot of manufacturers are creating for their dealers. Particularly the German brands. They would rather you were called the town where you are located followed by their brand, which doesn’t give any personal touch to the business.”
Local business has always been core to the Newmans business model. “We try to create a very friendly atmosphere when people walk in. The core thing I tell the staff is to just make it easy for the customer to carry out business with us, whether that is an MoT, a service or buying a car. Just make it easy.”
As a result Newmans has built a solid local customer base over many years and this certainly helped the business drive through the recession and Suzuki’s product desert which followed in 2011. But again Foster believes Suzuki as a brand played a vital role in supporting dealers through the tough times.
“Suzuki was only selling 20,000 a year at the time and it was difficult but the support from the brand, right from the top, was fantastic.
“There was no agenda to get you to spend any money that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Any manufacturer charges that could be cut to get us through the difficult times were cut.”
As a result, the period saw very few Suzuki casualties, whereas the damage done to other franchises is still evident in Southampton with no representation for Renault, Chrysler Jeep or Mitsubishi. That said the competition in the local area remains strong.
“We have Hyundai’s biggest UK dealership here in Southampton yet across the area we cover many rival manufacturers have two dealerships.
“Also half of our territory faces the sea, so we don’t have a 360 degree customer base, only 180. It’s a very big student area, but we also tap into Winchester and the New Forest, which are very affluent,” he said.
Effective marketing in such an environment is vital and over many years Foster has found that static product displays in supermarkets are highly effective for drumming up publicity and sales.
“What works is to have a car, with clear signage, left on its own so that people can approach it.
“If you man the stand people walk away because they don’t want to engage with you. They just want to look. We’ve attributed sales to every time we’ve done
a product placement,” said Foster.
Customer retention is a priority for the business, Foster arguing that with the amount spent to bring people into the showroom it is a poor move not to spend a bit more on retaining those the business already has.
“Do we put enough value behind that once-a-year visit into the service department?”
Again the Newmans “make it easy” philosophy is paramount, aided by the fact that the customers know the staff.
“When customers come in it’s meet and greet, all on first name terms. Our staff have been here a long time and that helps greatly in making it feel like a family business,” he said.
Foster is an advocate of service plans, Newmans tailoring its own products to its market and offering them on all new and used cars. It also has a successful bonus scheme to incentivise staff.
“Sales executives get the first payment on a service plan as their commission and we currently have about 400 customers paying us monthly
for service plans.”
As well as keeping customers in the dealership, the plans have a positive psychological effect.
“A customer has paid us up front for having a service plan, yet when we present them with a bill for extra work necessary, such as a couple of tyres, they thank us because it’s only a small bill.”
After such a strong 2014, Foster is confident in future trading having seen Suzuki’s all-new Celerio and Vitara models at the recent Paris Motor Show.
The Celerio will replace both the Splash and Alto, currently Suzuki’s best seller, but Foster anticipates no issues persuading Alto buyers to trade-in for the bigger car.
“Alto has been an amazing car with its £5,995 headline price, a lot of buyers would have bought anything on wheels for that price, but were pleasantly surprised when they got in the Alto.
“We can’t keep going that way, however. Celerio is a new model for us with better residuals, class-leading emissions and boot space and if it fits the bill customers will buy.”
Foster’s optimism will see major investment in the next 18 months, either expanding the present premises, or relocating. And he is also seriously looking at adding a further franchise, but it will have to complement his Suzuki brand; “I’m in my 20th year with Suzuki and I value the franchise a lot,” he said
Newmans Suzuki Fact File
Established: 1921, current owner 2005
Location: Southampton
Brands: Suzuki, Isuzu
Staff: 18 (7 in aftersales)
Ramps: 5 (including MoT)
