Andrews leaves Seat for Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz UK has appointed Nick Andrews to the newly created head of fleet role, to build upon recent growth achieved by the luxury vehicle manufacturer.

Andrews joins Mercedes-Benz with significant automotive experience, having spent the past seven years at Volkswagen Group, most recently as head of fleet and business sales for Seat UK, and seven years at Nissan before that, where he became national sales manager for the LCV division.

His appointment comes after a period of change within the Mercedes-Benz sales division and fleet department, which has been focused on a renewed strategy, supported by an expanding model line-up.

The focus for the new head of fleet will be to build upon the current market share of over 4%. The new fleet strategy focuses on growth within the three core areas, namely commercial accounts, small business and, most significantly, contract hire and leasing.

Commenting about his role, Andrews said: "This is certainly an exciting time at Mercedes-Benz. The focus on restructuring this part of the business has led to some impressive results with the best ever market share achieved in 2010, which has continued and indeed risen this year.

"I will be maximising the opportunities that our current and new model line-up presents, and ensuring that our entire network maintains high levels of standards, working together to achieve our longer-term goals of extending our 4% market share."

Andrews will be reporting to Mike Whittington, sales director at Mercedes-Benz UK, who said: "We are delighted to be welcoming someone with Nick's experience to the team at such a pivotal point in time.

"By appointing Nick to this new role, I am confident that his personal drive and fleet expertise will ensure we continue to exceed our objectives and build upon our success over the past 12 months."