F&I Management & Training

Renault and Nissan dealer group Bridges has ceased trading, with the loss of 116 jobs.
Administrators from KPMG have closed its four dealerships in Newbury, Cirencester and Reading.
The remainder of its original 139 staff are helping administrators tie up loose ends.
KPMG's Richard Hill blamed “tough trading conditions” for the closures.
“Unfortunately tough trading conditions in the automotive retail sector have resulted in the business encountering problems and the decision has been taken to cease operations in all four locations,” he said.
Hill is now seeking to dispose of the company's remaining assets.

DATED: 13.06.08

FEED: AM

George Hartwell Group has sold its three Peugeot dealerships to Westover Group.
Westover chairman Peter Wood said all staff at the outlets in Poole, Christchurch and Ferndown would be retained and integrated into Westover.
It is the first time Westover has represented Peugeot. The group now has 21 outlets and 600 staff.
The acquisition is expected to push Westover up into the 40s from its current 54 ranking in the latest AM100 with £175 million turnover.
Andrew Hartwell, managing director of George Hartwell, said: "We were anxious to ensure continuity, so we’re delighted that our staff are secure and that our customers will benefit from Westover’s first rate service.
"The sale made good economic sense for us, but it also means that local Peugeot drivers will see improved provision in the long term, thanks to Westover’s size and its commitment to the region."

DATED: 13.06.08

FEED: AM

Hendy Group, which retails Ford, Kia, Honda, Mazda and LDV in the south of England, is the focus of a TV show to be aired next week.
The Secret of My Success, on ITV's Meridian network, examines leading business success stories and Hendy Group managing director Paul Hendy is among the business leaders featured in a show dedicated to successful family businesses.
Due to be aired on Thursday June 19 at 10.30pm, , the show’s producers followed Paul Hendy around some of the group’s key locations from Southampton to Exeter and looks at the reasons behind its success.
It is hoped that the show will raise awareness in the region that it has added other franchises in recent years since its origins as a Ford retailer.
"Many people will know us as a Ford dealer but the portfolio is now much more varied," said Hendy.

DATED: 13.06.08

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Chester Audi is relocating from its site on Sealand Road to a new purpose built site in August due to the expansion of the business.
The new site in Cheshire Oaks, located just off Junction 10 of the M53 motorway will be ready in August.
The business will be renamed Cheshire Oaks Audi as a result of the move.
There will be four times more parking space and two air conditioned customer lounges with wireless internet connection. Workshop facilities will triple in size and parts stocks will more than double.
There will be an increased range of vehicles including ‘Audi approved’ used and ex-demonstrator vehicles.

DATED: 13.06.08

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Camden Corporate Fleet Services, ranked 9 in the latest AM100, has undergone a rebrand as Camden Group Services.
Under chief executive Ian Wardle, the Leighton Buzzard-based group has created two operating divisions. The Camden Retail division operates its Ford, Vauxhall, Renault and Nissan dealerships and its Camden CarStore used car centre.
Camden Fleet Solutions division serves the fleet sector from its locations in Islip and Corby.
In September 2007 the business split from Camden Motor Group, which remains headed by Paul Dunkley, in a £66 million MBO.
Barclays Private Equity invested £27m to acquire a majority stake in the business, while Wardle and the executive management team and existing shareholders invested the remaining £39m needed for the MBO.

DATED: 13.06.08

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Pendragon profit forecasts have been cut by a fifth after May registrations fell by 9.5 per cent.
Industry analysts Citigroup and Arden Partners slashed 2008 and 2009 estimates for UK dealerships following the registration data.
Pendragon was off 8.9 per cent to 26p, while Inchcape lost 8.6 per cent to 349p. Lookers was down 71.5 per cent, reported the Financial Times.
The downshift does not reflect Pendragon’s prediction last month that annual earnings would be at the upper end of expectations after a promising start to the year.

DATED: 13.06.08

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Citroen has appointed 16 dealers within its existing UK network as commercial vehicle specialists in order to cater for its six-strong LCV model range.
Robert Handyside, Citroën’s commercial vehicle operations manager, said: “With increasing competition customers are demanding ever higher levels of sales and after sales service.
"Our new commercial vehicle specialist dealer network will provide a level of additional services to those already provided by our existing 200 plus dealer network."
The newly appointed Citroën commercial vehicle specialist dealers are Bollingmores in Sunbury, Middlesex, Freeborn in Southampton, Yeomans in Exeter, Islington Motors in Trowbridge, Citroën London West in Brentford, Middlesex, Duff Morgan in Norwich, Citroën Coventry, Citroën Birmingham, Town Centre in Sunderland, Citroën Glasgow, Evans Halshaw in Leeds, Citroën Manchester in Sale, John Wilding in Morecambe and Citroën Edinburgh. Citroen Hatfield and Citroen Slough will also gain commercial vehicle specialist status in September.
Each of the dealers will have access to a wider range of new Citroën commercial vehicles in stock, including models from Citroën’s Ready to Run specialist vehicle programme. Also, these dealers will have a larger number of demonstrators and carry a bigger choice of Citroën approved used commercial vehicles. Additional services offered include extended service department opening hours, courtesy vans and a wider range of while-you-wait service operations.
Citroen has developed a new LCV training programme to make sure staff at the new LCV specialist dealers have "the level of expertise required".
Handyside said: "We believe that the appointment of the specialist dealers will attract a large number of new customers. Citroën will be able to provide an unrivalled level of sales and aftersales support."

DATED: 13.06.08

FEED: AM

Sector is robust despite growing economic pressure
Used car transactions only saw a marginal year-on-year fall during the first quarter of the year as the sector adjusted to the impact of economic pressures on buyers.
According to the SMMT, Q1 transactions, either through retailers or private sellers, slipped 1.1 per cent from 1.91 million to 1.89 million units – a shortfall of 21,408 units.

“This represents a highly respectable performance. We should not ignore the pressures of rapidly rising fuel costs although sales across all segments have broadly been stable,” said Mark Standish, chief executive of Carlyle Finance.
The SMMT figures, produced exclusively in this week’s Motor Trader, show a market oscillating on a monthly basis. While January was around 16,000 units down, February was up by 30,000, followed by a 35,000 shortfall in March.
The March slump could be the key indicator here as this is traditionally the strongest used sales month of the year with buyers trading-in cars for brand new models. This year’s March sales totalled 654,502, compared with 690,000 in 2007 and a recent high of 710,000 in 2004.
The April figures, when they are published later in the year, are likely to hint at which way the sector is going.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: MT

Pendragon, Inchcape and Lookers all record a dip
Car dealers are starting to feel the impact of the credit crunch, with shares in a number of major groups dropping.
Large motor retailers to take a hit include Inchcape, which saw its share price fall 33p, and Lookers, which recorded a 13p drop.

Vertu Motors remained flat at 44p but Pendragon, despite predicting in April that full-year results would be at the upper end of expectations, saw its share price fall 2½ p to 25¾ p.
The decline has arrived after the group’s joint house brokers Citigroup and Arden Partners cut their earnings estimates by around 20 per cent.
Michael Vassallo, equities analyst at stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, said the development was unusual, as house brokers typically took their cues from the companies.
“Usually they would downgrade based on a company saying something,” he said.
“But Pendragon hasn’t said anything – the last thing it said was that they were doing very well.”
Vassallo said the cautious approach was not specific to the motor retail sector, however.
“I think Citigroup has taken a more negative stance on the whole of the retail sector, it’s not just motor retailers,” he said.
“So it’s really about consumer weakness – that’s what they’ve blamed it on.”

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: MT

Flurry of activity following Kerkorian shares bid
Ford has tendered nearly half of its stock in response to American billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's offer to buy its shares at a large premium.
The carmaker's stockholders offered Kerkorian 1.02 billion shares following his offer to acquire 20m shares at $8.50 (£4.30) through his Tracinda Corp investment vehicle.


Shareholders may be eager to take the offer as Ford shares were down nearly 4 per cent at $6.10 on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week.
Kerkorian, who was also one of the original bidders to buy previously Ford-owned Land Rover and Jaguar, purchased 100 million Ford shares in April and announced plans to tender the offer, even after Ford issued a profit warning.
He was previously the largest individual shareholder in rival carmaker General Motors.

DATED: 12.06.08

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Organiser claims Canary Wharf customers have financial clout to keep spending on cars
The credit crunch may not provide the ideal economic climate for a show of luxury cars, but Graeme Carver, managing director of the London Motorexpo, is confident the event’s affluent customer base at Canary Wharf will remain acquisitive.
“I think it would be fair to assume the credit crunch may make things tougher, but there are a lot of people here who have a lot of money,” he said.


“The average salary at Canary Wharf is over £100,000 per year – so there’s a certain amount of disposable income to play with when it comes to purchasing cars.”
While Carver said the show last year attracted 350,000 visitors, he did not have a prediction for this year’s exhibition which was held last week.
“I think we’re in a bit of unknown territory, but the manufacturer response has been very positive, so that’s encouraging,” he said.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: MT

Manheim Auctions warns of sluggish used car sales
The economic slowdown has now spread to the car auction market, according to Manheim.
The auction group said that following a strong first quarter the market started to slow mid-way through quarter two.

Average used car wholesale values in May 2008 were £6,768 which is 4 per cent below the average values in the January to April period.
The hardening of the used car market has resulted in auction conversion rates have falling by 4 – 9 per cent, depending on sector.
Manheim said this was reflected in auction sales volumes falling by an overall 12 per cent in the month against April.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: MT

Petrol sales have been cut by a fifth as British motorists ditch their cars amid rising fuel costs.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that “British motorists are clearly driving less” after crude oil prices doubling in the last year.
According to IEA, drivers are choosing public transport as cars become too expensive to run.
The cost of a litre of petrol has shot up from 92.8p in March 2007 to 106.8p in March 2008 and to almost 117p now.
Adding to the fuel furore is a four-day strike by Shell tanker drivers, expected to begin on Friday over a pay dispute.
If it goes ahead, 1 in ten UK petrol stations could run out of fuel.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

Will the Government’s latest tax hikes successfully hammer Britain’s motorists into cleaner cars?
CAR Magazine recently surveyed more than 1,000 motorists to ask if they’d ditch high-CO2 vehicles in the wake of the Budget’s tax shake-up due in 2010.
The results were surprising. The majority of drivers – 76% in fact – said that even the top-whack £950 first-year tax for vehicles emitting more than 255g/km of CO2 wouldn’t put them off. Most said that if they could afford to buy a model falling in the highest tax band, then they could probably afford to stump up the extra cash.
Just one-fifth of respondents said the new fiscal measures were harsh enough to stop them from buying another gas guzzler.
This worries me. Motoring taxes are the Government’s main instrument for changing driver behaviour, but it seems ministers still can’t get it right. On the basis of this survey, the Budget seems to be more about raising revenue than changing motorists’ choices.
Opposition MPs claim Britain’s drivers will be £1.6 billion worse off. The changes aren’t revenue neutral – which is the only fair way to redistribute motoring levies.
If I were chancellor, I’d make bigger cuts to encourage the cleanest cars. We still need to discourage the dirtiest, granted, but there has to be a clear and long-term vision for this country’s transport taxes. It’s utterly unfair that these plans will retrospectively hit people who bought cars in the past few years. How were they to know Labour would escalate their tax bills so enormously?
This Government has already swamped us with enough confusing rhetoric to last a lifetime. Should we plump for biofuel cars? Or will they just be another dead end like LPG proved to be? And who’d buy an electric car in this climate of uncertainty?
We need long-term certainty if any of us can plan our next purchase or our business strategy.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

Ford of Britain has been shortlisted for a National Excellence Award from Business in the Community (BITC) for its skills for life campaign at Ford’s two Dagenham engine plants.
It is one of four companies nominated after receiving a big tick in the 2008 BITC Awards for Excellence which this year focuses on best practice in finding and nurturing talents essential for an organisation.
Ford Dagenham staff are typically middle-aged males, with an average of 17 years’ service, explained Amy Lewis, Ford Dagenham change, learning and development manager. Therefore, they have been out of education a long time and are reluctant to walk into classrooms to learn skills for life.
Lewis said: “We needed to find another approach. Now we have skills coaches who work on the factory floor.
“They are there for employees who want to work further on maths or English. They have short one-to-one lessons of 15-20 minutes once a week.”
She added: “When workers have built up confidence, we suggest to them they can take a national qualification in numeracy or literacy.”
Since the new approach was introduced in spring last year, there have been fewer and less severe accidents, an improvement in quality of work and reduced staff absence.
Most notably, production volumes increased by a third in 2007.
There has also been an increase in workers applying for roles such as group leader and employees are gaining a national qualification.
“This method totally fits with our employees and the manufacturing environment,” said Lewis. “It takes away the stigma of the classroom atmosphere, and removes a lot of barriers in the process.” Around a fifth of the workforce is currently undertaking the programme – 500 employees out of 2,400.
The skills for life programme at Ford Dagenham is currently funded by London Development Agency and Learning Skills Council.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

SsangYong has cut parts prices by an average of 40 per cent on its three-model range.
Menu servicing has also been introduced to ensure that costs of ownership remain competitive.
The move comes as part of a review by Koelliker UK, SsangYong distributor since January this year.
SsangYong said the review has also improved parts availability with dealers now holding a bigger parts stock.
Doug Lincoln, Koelliker UK aftersales managing director, said: "This is about customer satisfaction and reducing the costs of ownership at a time when fuel prices are going the other way."
He added: "For example, the cost of servicing a Rexton over 30,000 miles is now over £100 cheaper, making it less expensive than a Kia Sorento."
A Kyron oil filter has dropped in price from over £30 to £12.68, while Rodius front brake pads are now £39.89 – down from £68.40.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

New research places Inchcape as the region's second biggest group
Inchcape has overtaken Pendragon as the biggest UK dealer group operating in Europe, according to new research.
While Porsche Holding, the manufacturer owned group which operates over 180 continental Volkswagen sites, remains the biggest dealer group by revenue and new car sales.

According to the research, by Automotive News Europe, Inchcape's European revenues for 2007 reached €7.69bn (£6.13bn), up 3 per cent from €6.15bn (£4.9bn) in 2006.

DATED: 12.06.08

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Aston Martin chairman David Richards has revealed plans to take the carmaker public in order to fund its expansion.
Flotation on the London Stock Exchange, which could value the business at around £500 million, will give hundreds of thousands of Aston Martin fans a chance to own a slice of the iconic car manufacturer at a fraction of the cost of one of its models.
Richards said the company will go public in three years' time to help fund the next round of its expansion.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

Jim Press, president of Chrysler, believes carmakers will need to add incentives in order to battle slumping demand caused by high fuel costs and the declining economy.
Carmakers started the year not wanting to overload dealers with products, but that appears to be changing as their costs are driven skywards by increasing raw material prices.
"It is inevitable from our standpoint because we have pricing pressure in terms of cost from steel and plastic," Press told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Incentives will be a key part but the focus will shift on those products that are facing the headwinds, such as trucks and SUVs, rather than those benefiting from the tailwind like cars."
Dealers fear that incentives might cut into profit margins and may cheapen brand images. But Press said they can work as long as they are used strategically.
"It is wrong to use incentives to create business," he said. "They need to be used tactically on those products where there is an inventory imbalance to temporarily make them more attractive to get some volume."
In the US, Chrysler's average incentive per vehicle sold in May was $3,714 (£1,883).
Ford's average was $3,326 (£1,686).
GM's was at $3,477 (£1,762).
Nissan's average U.S. incentive was $2,090 (£1,059).
Honda's was $1,256 (£636)
Toyota was $1,045 (£536).

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM

Remit hopes to begin training franchised dealers’ apprentices by the end of the year.
But the first priority is to stabilise the business, said chief executive Rob Foulston.
The Remit brand was relaunched by the RMIF after it bought back the apprentice learning division from administrators for Carter & Carter for £62,500.
The deal was spearheaded by Foulston, who owns an education publishing business, Education & Media Services, and the awarding body ITEC.
As a former insolvency specialist at Deutsche Bank, he was interested in Carter & Carter’s demise and contacted RMIF finance director Kevin Waterman through a friend.
Foulston, now a minority shareholder in Remit, said there were other bidders for the motor apprentice operation, including a consortium of colleges.
Having only had the business for six weeks, Foulston said he thinks it is already profitable – and he has told the RMIF board as much.
The operation is currently around a third of the size it was when the RMIF sold it for £25.5m to Carter & Carter two years ago. Author: Tim Rose
Remit hopes to begin training franchised dealers’ apprentices by the end of the year.
But the first priority is to stabilise the business, said chief executive Rob Foulston.
The Remit brand was relaunched by the RMIF after it bought back the apprentice learning division from administrators for Carter & Carter for £62,500.
The deal was spearheaded by Foulston, who owns an education publishing business, Education & Media Services, and the awarding body ITEC.
As a former insolvency specialist at Deutsche Bank, he was interested in Carter & Carter’s demise and contacted RMIF finance director Kevin Waterman through a friend.
Foulston, now a minority shareholder in Remit, said there were other bidders for the motor apprentice operation, including a consortium of colleges.
Having only had the business for six weeks, Foulston said he thinks it is already profitable – and he has told the RMIF board as much.
The operation is currently around a third of the size it was when the RMIF sold it for £25.5m to Carter & Carter two years ago.

DATED: 12.06.08

FEED: AM