MT Interview: Fraser Cohen, Glyn Hopkin Group

In an exclusive interview with Motor Trader, Fraser Cohen, managing director of the Glyn Hopkin Group, talks about the company’s 25th anniversary, together with recent company performance and how to get more women involved in the retail motor industry

Glyn Hopkin is celebrating its 25th anniversary. What are the major accomplishments for the business over that time?

To start, I think that it’s a significant achievement for any privately-owned company, especially in the motor trade, to still be in business after 25 years. We formed the company in 1992 and opened in January ’93; the brands we’ve had, they’ve had some challenging times, but we’ve expanded with those brands. If you take Nissan, we’ve expanded to 13 dealerships. In 2000 we took on the FCA brands and now we’ve nine Fiat dealerships, with multiple sites representing Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Abarth.
When Glyn sat down 25 years ago with a plan to start the company, I don’t think he ever contemplated where we’d be quarter of a century later, but he wanted to have a strong position in the market and expand in a sustainable way. We started with about 25 employees and now we have more than 850. That’s a lot of responsibility; a lot of people who rely on us for their income. Then you have the responsibility to our customers, we’ve a database of about 130,000 contacts.

That expansion was the key to the grand plan?

Yes, expansion was a key target to achieve economies of scale. We started in Romford and the business has been built up around contiguous areas. We’ve always tried to remain within two hours of the head office. Any further and you start to lose some control. We have locations up to Milton Keynes, then over to Ipswich, but we don’t want to go much further than that. The strategy was to always be strong in the market area and then take on competitors in the same brand.

What have you done for the staff, is there going to be a party?

Well, we’ve done parties in the past but it’s more difficult now considering how many staff we have. Then, there’s the geographic spread, plus not everyone is comfortable with coming to a big party. So, we had massive 25th anniversary cakes made up to thank the staff and they were delivered out to all the dealerships on the date closest to when the business started. While it wasn’t a grand gesture, it’s something a little more personal to mark the occasion and it was well received.

What’s the best and worst over the past 25 years?

Well, I think some of the best is watching teenagers that start with us and work their way through the company into senior management. That was a big thing for Glyn, giving people the opportunity to learn, improve and progress. I think the worst was the financial crisis [2008, ‘09], there was a lot of worry and concern about the recession. It didn’t affect us too much, largely due to the scrappage incentives, but customers and staff were understandably worried about the situation.

Speaking about scrappage, some carmakers are offering similar schemes but they have a lot of terms and only apply to a limited number of models – they’re almost self-serving. What do you think about a government scrappage scheme, would it help the government address diesel and air quality issues?

Scrappage was easy before because it was a single message across all brands. The market now is congested with terms and conditions. It would be better if the government launched another scheme.

Do you think government is responsible for the issues surrounding diesel, people turning away from what is still a viable transport solution?

I wouldn’t say they’re responsible, but some of the messages are unclear and wider perception is not based on all the facts. I think it would be helpful if there was a scheme put together by – or for – the government to explain what’s going on.

Glyn Hopkin represents a series of volume brands, has there been any discussion about moving into the premium segment of the market?

We’ve been approached by premium brands but the investment is significant and we felt it might restrict further development of the brands we already have. So we’ve continued to expand in the volume arena. We sometimes get approached by niche brands, low-share luxury, and I think it’s about getting the right opportunity. We’re a very agile company, we can deal with volume or niche.

The agility comes from being a private company, you don’t have to do ‘decision by committee’? There’s you, the board, and as long as the figures add up, the case is made?

Exactly. That’s one of our major strengths. We’ve had employees come from some big public companies and they’re always impressed with the speed we can make decisions.
We try and have a hands-on approach to support the decision-making process. If you look at public companies making change is a lot slower. I’m not criticising public companies, it’s just the way they’re set up, how they operate; we can move much more quickly.

You’ve been working with the founder, Glyn Hopkin, for almost 30 years and the business for 25 years. Is that longevity common across the company?

The company philosophy has always been to promote from within. That holds for me and many other employees, we’ve a lot of staff who have been working with us for 10 or 20 years. Many have risen from sales executive through to director level.
I think it’s testament to Glyn and the business he started. We do get the odd occasion where we have to hire from outside, but generally our management comes from within. The career path attracts people and makes them want to stay. An issue we sometimes have is having enough challenges in the business to keep individuals happy – you can only move people up so many times.

When you promote people internally you have to keep drawing them in. Is that causing any issues, getting new talent on board?

I think there’s a misconception about the motor trade that is common to the public perception in that people think you have to be a ‘car person’ in order to sell cars, accurately portray the cars to support a buying decision. I don’t think salespeople need to know about cars. We prefer people to have some sales experience, but with that basic knowledge we can train them to sell cars.
I think women, particularly, think that they can’t get into the business because they don’t know enough about cars, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

For the full article, please see the print or electronic version of the June 2018 issue of Motor Trader