Managing Director’s blog
Created in 1905, the ‘Hôtel de France’ is located in the centre of France and, to be precise, in a charming little rural village named ‘La-Chartre-sur-le-Loir’ which has a population of 1,425. Although the hotel appears to be beautiful with a typical ‘Art déco’ façade, it is nothing really special…
Read MoreToday, a deal was finalised between Hedin Bil, the 13th ranked dealer group in Europe, and Ford Motor Company for the sale of the Swedish Ford national sales company (NSC) to Hedin Bil. As a result, Hedin Bil will not only be the largest dealer for Ford in Sweden, but also act as the independent distributor for the brand.
Read MoreOnline sales channels are not new, they existed decades ago, remember the Vauxhall online sales channel back in 1999?
Read MoreImage from the Financial Times
Welcome back to 2021 – starting off, much like 2020 ended, except that we now have Covid vaccination programmes. I hope that you had some downtime over the holiday period and have returned refreshed for whatever the new year brings. I did consider making this first blog of the year a personal prediction of what some of the main events might be, but I felt that would be setting myself up to fail, so instead turn to a couple stories that have been doing the rounds over the holiday period related to Apple and Tesla.
Read More…the used car business was straightforward. Take in some trade-ins, buy some cars from the local auction and your mates in the trade, quick polish and stick them on your forecourt with a price sticker until the punters rolled up.
Read MoreAs the pandemic first hit Europe in the Spring, and lockdown closed showrooms, dealers looked to innovate quickly to maintain contact with customers, and in many cases, continue to sell cars remotely and fulfil these sales through contactless handover and delivery.
Read MoreMy Tesla Model S finally went back to the lease company at the end of last week, which makes this a good time to reflect on what I learned from running this car for 3½ years and 80,000 km.
Read MoreThe last week was a grim one for anyone involved in what we call high street retail in the UK – the mainstream department stores and fashion stores that are the anchor of big shopping malls and take up many of the store fronts in a typical urban city centre shopping area.
Read MoreOver the last couple weeks, a repeated theme has been around mergers, acquisitions and cooperations in the auto industry.
Read MoreToday, Capgemini have published a report advocating the transition to an agency model for distribution networks, supported by consumer and dealer surveys in Europe and China.
Read MoreAs you hopefully noticed, I have missed a few weeks of my blog. I have not been on holiday (unfortunately) or struck down with Covid (fortunately), but tied up in a house move that did not go according to the carefully planned process, therefore continuing during a period when we had a lot on in ICDP.
Read MoreI was driving past a local dealership earlier today, part of a Top 20 UK group, and saw one of the sales executives returning from a trip to the local shops.
Read MoreAt this time of year, many companies are into their budget processes, determining their priorities for the next fiscal year, what assumptions they make for their markets, and given that, how much they can afford to spend, and on what.
Read MoreThe news over the last two to three weeks has not been encouraging in respect of Covid case numbers and new restrictions on people gathering in significant numbers. There are obviously big differences between markets, and we should praise those countries who seem to have managed their response to the pandemic better than others – even more so given that they are not the ones you would have put money on six or seven months ago
Read MoreThere was a great response to last week’s blog on the Near Term Dealer Model – I appreciate the feedback. It’s always useful and sometimes picks up on specific points that merit further comment. This is an example of that – with respect to the need to reconsider how processes work in dealerships, and whether there are opportunities to improve.
Read MoreIn the first part of this blog series, we discussed from an automotive perspective the potential effects of certain Government actions covered in the “Konjunktur- und Krisenbewältigungspaket”. This blog focuses on the measures of the “Zukunftspaket” which are more long-term orientated and aim at securing Germany’s position as a worldwide technology leader (and exporter) whilst accelerating and transforming the economy to align with digital and ecological requirements.
Read MoreIn recent months, members of the ICDP Research Programme have flagged some priority questions for us such as whether Covid has advanced digitalisation and changes in network structures, and whether there are lessons learned from the lockdown experience that can be applied to permanently reduce dealer fixed costs.
Read MoreSome years ago, a colleague and I had a discussion about why businesses existed. He had a private equity background and asserted that businesses were there to be bought and sold, basically that the businesses were as much of a commodity as the products or services they produced.
Read MoreStarting in July 2020, the German Government introduced a range of new measures to kick start the economy and to be in a good position to realign with future needs – all detailed in the “Konjunktur- und Krisenbewältigungspaket”, with mainly a short-term focus on supporting liquidity and avoiding job losses, and in the “Zukunftspaket” which is more long-term orientated and aims at securing technological power as well as successful (ecological) transformation - for instance as in the mobility sector.
Read MoreLooking at the image, you may wonder what place a very used brake caliper leaning against a can of baked beans has in a blog that is aimed at encouraging people to think about strategic change in automotive distribution, but there is a connection and that relates to the changes that technology has made and will continue to make.
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