Europe move for Honda UK boss

Honda's Dave Hodgetts has taken a promotion to a European role, as Phil Crossman takes over as managing director of Honda UK.

Hodgetts will take up the new role of European regional auditor from April 1, and will be responsible for the business performance assessment of 27 markets in the European Region as well as those in Middle East, Russia and Africa. The role will also encompass Honda's six manufacturing facilities within Europe and eight logistics operations.

Hodgetts moves from his three-year tenure as managing director of Honda UK where he has been responsible for sales operations across cars, motorcycles and power products. Before joining Honda's sales operations, Dave spent 20 years in a variety of management roles at Honda's Swindon car manufacturing operation, latterly as director of planning and business administration.

He said: "Since joining Honda UK, I have particularly enjoyed working with our diverse dealer network in the UK and am proud of the strong working relationships that have been achieved with our dealer partners.

"Our motorcycle and power equipment sales have both grown by more than 11% in 2012 along with a 7% increase in our car business, which demonstrates the energy and commitment shown by everyone in the UK business.

"The new role will encompass the whole of Honda's extended European region and will give me a great opportunity to better understand the diversity of these different operations and assess the issues that Honda must tackle in order to be successful in both mature and emerging markets."

Appointed as Hodgetts's successor in the role of managing director, Honda UK is Phil Crossman, who moves from his post of general manager, cars.

For the past two years Phil has been responsible for Honda's UK car sales operation and is the ideal candidate to lead the overall Honda business.

Previously, Crossman was head of dealer development for cars, motorcycles and power products. He joined Honda UK in 2000 as a regional manager from Nissan Motor GB where he was one of the founding business team.