The LCV market in Britain is in a pretty dire position at present. How are things in the Fiat camp?

Obviously the recessionary status of the market brings with it a number of issues, not least of which is dealer profitability when around half of our business is currently not there.

On our side we have re-dimensioned our organisation and aspirations so that we are ready to reap rewards when the market starts to come back.

We are not transacting business just for the sake of it and perhaps we are in a more fortunate situation than some of our competitors who seem to need to do business irrespective of margins.

I believe that we have created a solid foundation of credibility in the fleet market, improving our wholelife costs and green credentials and we will continue to do so.

What are you doing to try and stave off the effects of the recession?

As previously mentioned, we have re-dimensioned our business but without impacting on our day-to-day operations.

We cannot, and will not, force the market to a higher level and so therefore we are working to ensure the future as much as the moment.

Practically, this means that we have increased our face-to-face contact with fleet users, leveraging on the synergies that we have in our corporate fleet teams, and ensuring that our back office staff are at the correct level for the market.

We are careful also to ensure that we are not overstocked, which is counter productive to steady and continuous pricing and support.

Our product offer is strong and we are exposing this, as well as our positive showing in the Government CO2 and fuel consumption database to a wider audience.

Product and our support network of dedicated commercial vehicle dealers are our primary strengths.

Is Fiat taking part in the Government’s van scrappage scheme and, if so, is it having any effect on sales?

Yes, we are fully participating and we were among the first manufacturers to confirm this.

This said, I believe that the scheme is more aligned with passenger cars where we are achieving our expected positive results.

On commercial vehicles, incremental sales are being achieved but not to a high degree.

Fiat is well-known as a producer of motor caravans but maybe not so well-known as a big van fleet supplier. What are you doing to improve your sales pitch to Britain’s van feet operators?

The fact that we have in excess of 50% of the market for motorhomes both here in the UK and in continental Europe is testimony to the strength of the product and the support network and this has been built up over a number of years.

What we are doing in the UK with vans is creating a solid platform, based on credible marketing and solid product.

We are not in this for the quick win, we are slowly winning credible acclaim through new customer conquests.

In recent weeks we have taken substantial orders from customers such as E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy, Boots and received confirmation of our status as official approved supplier to Royal Mail.

In July last year we improved our warranty offering on all of our vehicles to give three years or 120,000 miles, which has been very well received by fleet operators.

Front-end discounts are all very well, but in the fleet business aftersales support is just as crucial. How its Fiat improving its aftersales care package for fleet operators?

We have an extensive support network in the UK with in excess of 200 aftersales support dealers.

This includes 33 dealers, strategically located, who are dedicated to the commercial vehicle user. Many of these are open 24 hours a day and the others all have extended opening hours outside of normal business times.

This means that we offer minimal business interruption and our vehicles can be available more on productive work.

Couple this to our competitive SMR costs and low fuel consumption and we are clearly able to offer a value package to the fleet user.

What are your dealers doing to make themselves more fleet friendly?

As already mentioned, I believe that our nationwide network of dedicated commercial vehicle dealerships offer an accessibility to aftersales support well above that of our traditional competitors.

Many are offering bespoke support to local businesses, be that courtesy vehicles or demonstrators.

We are a malleable organisation and seek to meet the needs of local business locally.

Fiorino has had praise heaped upon it since launch and of course under the skin it is actually a Fiat product. Are sales up to expectations and how is your marketing strategy for this vehicle progressing?

Our strategy is progressing well in that we are gaining new customers based on the user experience.

Fiorino has been very well received and what is important is that we are winning on technology, not on discounts.

For example, our recent order from Scottish and Southern Energy was gained through superior engine management technology.

The recent product enhancement offering traction control under certain circumstances e.g. offroad is another plus to the product and is currently interesting a number of potential users.

The DfT has just launched a website showing CO2 emissions and fuel economy figures for all the vans on sale in the UK. How do you feel your products fare in these tables against the opposition?

The numbers speak for themselves. Safe to say that our fleet salespeople and our dealers, are happy to have such a credible database and are using this in their discussions with prospective customers.

Our existing customers already know that this is a positive story. There are few who can match us across the entire range of products and this is good news.

We know that crystal ball gazing is a haphazard thing at present but how do you see the market developing in the next five years?

I think sales will slowly recover in numbers but will follow general market conditions.

It will take longer than this, in my opinion, to get back to the market peak that we saw in 2007.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

It is worthy of note that Fiat Professional in recent months is jockeying for the number one spot in Europe.

In April and May around one in every six light commercial vehicles sold in Europe was a Fiat.  

How Fiat turned a problem into an opportunity

One of your problems surely is that Fiorino, Scudo and Ducato are also sold bearing Citroën and Peugeot badges (Nemo/Dispatch/Relay and Bipper/Expert/Boxer). How can you persuade buyers to opt for Fiat rather than Citroën and Peugeot?

This is an opportunity rather than a problem.

We have a longstanding co-operation with PSA and we share many development costs and indeed manufacturing costs.

However, if you take time to look at issues like fuel consumption and emissions then the difference between the products becomes clearer.

In particular, our 2.3-litre engine on Ducato is both frugal and clean and the same can be said of our 1.3-litre JTD unit in our smaller vehicles.

I believe we are making better use of engine technology and offering lower running costs.

This is backed up in the Government statistics website.

We also have technology such as Traction Plus on Fiorino and built-in, tamper-free, speed limitation programmes which are gaining us sales.

Gerry Clarke fact file

Name: Gerry Clarke

Job title:  Director, Fiat Professional

Brief career description: Engineering background but close to 25 years with Fiat. This has included working both in the UK and abroad. Prior to my current role I was responsible for the management of the Fiat Group Automobiles worldwide importer network

Favourite book: Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Favourite film: Trainspotting

Favourite holiday destination: Mauritius

What three records would you take to a desert island? Three would never be enough but, anything from Randy Crawford, Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin