Consolidating a year’s growth in fleet of 107% in 2017 is the aspiration of Graeme Jenkins (pictured), head of fleet at Suzuki, this year as Company Car In Action 2018 presented the brand with the opportunity to showcase models to different customers.
Jenkins talked to Fleet News at the show.
Which models have been the most popular with fleets on your stand this year and why?
This is the first time the Swift Sport has been here so is of interest.
Vitara is always popular and interestingly there have already been a few test drives of the Ignis so those are the three cars that have predominantly been out on test drives the most.
CCIA allows us to give different customers a different experience, and the Swift is a natural choice for people in that segment.
We have a mild hybrid version, a 4x4 and now a Sport.
These options attract a lot of attention from different customers that may not have initially chosen Suzuki, so it introduces them to the brand.
What is your priority this year?
We had successful year last year and our year-on-year growth was 107% in fleet so it’s important to consolidate that growth to make sure you’re able to provide the level of service that those volumes require.
We have been spending a lot of time recruiting field managers, leasing managers and we recently appointed three regional business development managers, working with local dealers to generate rental and SME business.
Key is to find incremental profitable growth and we have the range of products to do that. We are fortunate to have recruited a highly experienced team.
What are your fleet sales expectations this year and longer term?
Last year we did about under 10,000 cars in fleet, this year we are looking to do around 11,000 and we are then looking to stretch that to 12,500 through natural demand.
There are lots of challenges along the way this year around WLTP deregulation of stock and things of that nature, it will limit us slightly to achieve the numbers we would have done otherwise through natural demand, but that is a challenge for all manufacturers, we are no different.
While we are in a very good position on WLTP it will mean we won’t realise as many natural volume related sales as we would have done normally.
Our goal is 12,500 and long term to take the brand to 15,000 but within the next five years we want to have 20,000 in the fleet industry.
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