ICDP Managing Director's blog

As everyone in the UK will be only too painfully aware, we are facing turmoil in our domestic politics again.  I appreciate that we are not unique in that regard, but given that we have been in a more or less constant state of chaos since the announcement of the Brexit referendum just over ten years ago, I think I could make a strong case for a gold medal in this particular discipline. 

I got the opportunity with my dealer hat on to visit the Beijing Auto Show last week – first time to a Chinese show since pre-pandemic, and my first time to Beijing.  As I am sure that you are all aware, the Beijing Show is on a different scale to any other, so comfortable shoes were critical, but it was great to see the industry on Chinese home ground.

I got a cold marketing call yesterday on my mobile.  Nothing new about that you probably think.  It was from a double-glazing company – which at least in the UK is also nothing new. 

The ICDP team is currently planning the research programme for the coming year, and one of the topics we are going to return to after a gap of some years is the relative attractiveness of a national sales company compared to an independent distributor for a manufacturer in a specific market. 

A couple weeks since my last blog, due to the demands of the ICDP Spring Members’ Meeting in Amsterdam last week.  We had a good attendance (although more would always be welcome) and some great discussions around the various presentations. 

I’ve been struck a few times recently by the inclusion from industry executives, consultants and journalists in presentations, blogs and media interviews of the oft-quoted ‘fact’ that buying a new car is the second largest transaction in your life.

There has been a constant background noise from many quarters, but mainly from the general consultancy and technology sectors, predicting the death of the dealership and a move to purely online car sales.

According to Greek legend, Damocles was a courtier in the court of Dionysius, the ruler of Syracuse in the 4th century BC.  As a demonstration of his absolute power and ability to end the life of Damocles in an instant, Dionysius hung a sword above the head of the poor courtier by a single horsehair.

We’re all guilty sometimes of being task-focused – zooming in on a particular task, finding a solution and getting it done – a management approach which was closely associated with a senior Ford executive I worked with which was colloquially known as JFDI (Just **** Do It). 

Surely nobody can be too surprised that the Chinese brands (excluding cars produced in China by global brands such as BMW, Dacia and Volvo, and brands that are ultimately owned by the Chinese, but are managed in Europe, such as Polestar) captured over 5% of the European market in 2025.

The challenges of the used car market have been well documented in the last couple years.  Whatever your role in the industry – manufacturer, dealer, lender, leasing company, service provider – you will almost certainly have faced some impact from the challenges of the used car market. 

Firstly, welcome back to a New Year!  Hopefully you had a chance to grab some rest, and have now fully recharged your personal batteries so that you are not suffering from any range anxiety for your journey through 2026…

As we approach the end of the year and the Christmas holiday period, this will be my last blog of the year (unless something really catches my attention or makes my blood boil).  Rather than focus here on the biggest issues of automotive distribution, I thought it might be an appropriate time to talk about something other than my specialist subject.

Perhaps those of us who are Brits have the best perspective on the progressive decline of the European motor industry.  To my surprise when I checked through the 1970s, there were only 12 UK car assembly plants operated by the volume and premium manufacturers at that time (i.e. excluding Aston Martin, Lotus, Rolls-Royce etc.) 

Each year, ICDP produces the ‘magnum opus’ of European distribution networks – the European Car Distribution Handbook (ECDH) that profiles the size of franchised sales and service networks for now 50 brands across 35 European markets.  The Handbook was first published in 2007, so provides a long history of the evolution of networks, with brands and markets added (and occasionally removed) to reflect our changing landscape.

It’s over forty years since the seminal book ‘In Search of Excellence’ by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman was published.  I’m probably one of the few people of my generation who have not read it, but I’ll put that down to the fact that the authors worked at McKinsey whilst I started in the mid-80s with A.T. Kearney (where J O McKinsey incidentally started his career).

The last couple of weeks in ICDP have been focused on dealer networks.  This week we published our annual update on the Top 50 European dealer groups, and we are just finalising the latest edition of our European Car Distribution Handbook (ECDH) which details the size of sales and service networks for 50 brands in 35 European markets. 

As most of you know, in parallel to my role at ICDP, I have the pleasure (and occasional pain) of leading an emerging dealer group on behalf of one of our member companies, Çetaş Otomotiv, from Turkey.

It is widely accepted that the automotive industry has never experienced so many challenges in parallel as we face today – electrification, economic downturns, new entrants, tariffs and much more besides. 

The cyberattack that shut down all of JLR’s operations at the start of September has been well-reported in the mainstream and trade press.  As with earlier attacks on UK retailer M&S or major dealer group Arnold Clark, JLR chose not to pay the ransom demand to the gang responsible, but to repair and restore the systems that had been damaged.