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.
Two decades ago Volkswagen made a clear distinction between its car and van businesses when it separated its passenger car and light commercial dealer networks. The move proved successful for the brand which is now the second biggest seller of new vans in the UK after Ford.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles now has a dedicated network of 72 Van Centres and an additional 24 authorised repairers. As a mark of the strength and independence of the network just 27 sites share showrooms with car dealers. The Van Centres have individual dealer agreements with the brand, completely separate from VW Passenger Cars, and the brands have different franchising teams at head office as well.
Over this time the network has built an enviable reputation for the high level of specialist support it offers owners and customers.
“We have seen an increase in ROI in Q1 2017, which is testament to the growing strength of our network and having the newest model line-up of any other van manufacturer,” said Carl zu Dohna, director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles UK.
“Our Van Centres, on the whole, run successful and enterprising businesses and act as excellent agents for the brand. Our focus is on achieving consistency across the network and ensuring that each and every one of our partners realises the true value of the franchise. The van market is changing: we need our dealers to embrace the changes, and understand and adapt to what it means to be a commercial partner to a commercial business.”
Like car dealers profitability comes from a mix of new and used sales and aftersales.
“Dealers making the most money maximise revenue in every area of the business, maximising the return on their overheads and taking every new and used sale, rental and aftersales opportunity.
“Used vans certainly present a good profit opportunity for most businesses. We also have a head office team who can talk to the dealers about financial performance in depth and work with them to find efficiencies and opportunities,” he said.
According to zu Dohna Volkswagen’s specialist approach works well with dealers focused on recruiting the right customer facing staff.
“We are continuing to develop our people strategy to ensure we have the best people and to have commercial vehicle professionals servicing commercial vehicle customers. There’s a clear correlation between an experienced and dedicated head of business and happier customers and better profits. We want the best people running high quality businesses: that’s how we will all achieve the best results for our customers and our network.”
Like all van specialist dealers typical customers are sole traders, SMEs and larger businesses with the VW centres focused on sub-100 fleets, with bigger fleet deals handled by the national sales teams with the centres involved in supply and aftersales.
“What’s most important is that we find the right vehicles, the right funding and the right aftersales support for every fleet – whether they’re running one or 100 vehicles. For sole traders and SMEs, a different level of support might be needed, whether that’s the supply of racking, decals or just making sure they’re aware of changes in legislation. It’s not just a van – it’s a whole mobility package,” he said.
As part of this mobility package VW has looked at ways of reducing downtime for its business customers and in March introduced extended opening hours.
“Minimising downtime and maximising uptime is our biggest priority. We’ve taken a pragmatic customer first approach to ensure customers can have their vehicle serviced or maintained at a time to suit them, on demand.”
The new extended opening hours initiative has been rolled out across every Van Centre and authorised repairer which now must offering at least one of the four following options: vehicle drop-off on demand up to 8pm; open for business 13 hours a day, three days a week or open for business 16 hours a day, three days a week or mor; Availability of Mobile Service Clinic
“The extended opening hours service not only accommodates changes in business’ working hours and gives customers greater choice and flexibility, but also helps businesses minimise the impact of costly downtime. As vehicle downtime remains one of the most frustrating elements of fleet management, with this initiative, we are helping customers manage their fleets proactively and efficiently.
Curtis Hutchinson