Nissan review UK dealership network

publication date: Sep 8, 2008

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author/source: Robin Roberts

Nissan GB is holding a review of every retail partner and every location in its dealer network.

Managing director Paul Willcox wants a full diagnostic evaluation of the current performance of each site and partners’ strengths and weaknesses.

This will be followed by a needs analysis to identify ways of helping dealerships.

Mr Willcox said, “Rather than saying we’ll support our dealers by writing a cheque it’s about seeing what’s needed and putting in a programme to achieve that.”

He said there were too many different programmes in place at present, and there was a danger that managers spend too long trying to understand the programmes and lose focus from the dealership.

Mr Willcox wants to end many of the programmes with the aim of making the franchise one of the simplest to run.

“We’re taking a lot of the complexity out of the business and focusing on the things that matter - selling parts, selling labour hours and selling cars,” he said. “We’ll be transparent with all partners and we’ll explain what their commitment is. We need to grow our brand to take it from 1pc market share to 4pc by 2012.”

There are two priorities in the franchise plan to achieve this. First is to add 28 sales points, taking the network to around 208 locations, which will be 95pc capacity. The second priority is to increase volume through the network.