VOLVO has restructured its corporate sales operation to increase annual fleet sales from 16,000 to 22,000 by the end of 2001 and central to growth is the opening this week of a Volvo Business Centre tasked with making the Ford-owned marque more of a fleet force to be reckoned with.

The new centre is housed at the Ford Business Centre in Surrey, and Ford best practices in fleet were behind the move which will free up more time for customer visits and relationship building.

Corporate sales manager Alistair Murray said Volvo had become a victim of its own success, following a record year in 1999. Since Ford took Volvo into its Premier Automotive Group last year to join Jaguar and Aston Martin, and lately Land Rover, Murray has been working closely with his Ford fleet colleagues.

'We have become familiar with the way Ford of Great Britain works having spent six months or so with fleet operations director Mike Wear and his team putting Volvo in where Ford no longer has an executive product,' said Murray. 'It's done our sales a power of good and it has also brought us much closer to Ford.

While Volvo's corporate sales organisation headcount remains about the same, there are now four dedicated teams operating from its Buckinghamshire headquarters. Murray expects commercial payback from the reorganisation within a year, with leasing companies taking an increasing share of business.