2019 was a transformative year for Suzuki GB.
Two years in the making, in July the brand launched the Suzuki Business Partner (SBP) programme in the UK.
It sees dealers manage sales from contract hire and leasing companies while giving them the power to generate incremental sales from local SMEs.
The programme incorporates 32 dedicated fleet dealer groups (with around 60 dealerships), fleet specialists at each site, dedicated demonstrator vehicles, new approaches to marketing, demos, admin and resources, a new aftersales charter (including reduced labour and oil rates) and a bonus programme incentivising Suzuki business partners to exceed service level agreements.
As part of the scaling of the programme, Suzuki has hired a used car and re-marketing manager, dedicated to working with the leasing industry and management of end-of-contract vehicles to ensure residual values achieved are fair across the product line-up for all parties.
Finally, the role of cost of ownership and re-marketing manager has been created to work closely with industry guides and aftersales and production departments on all models to improve RVs.
The SBP is also supported by a fleet demo app with vehicle ordering, a national used car programme and e-auction platform, designed to protect residuals with vehicles sourced from the Suzuki GB network.
“It’s a programme all about empowering our dealers around the country to manage incoming sales from contract hire and leasing companies, while also enabling them to generate sales from local business fleet needs,” said Suzuki.
The results of the SBP have been impressive, despite the challenging UK market place and economic uncertainty.
True fleet registrations through external leasing providers (excluding Suzuki Contract Hire and rental business) has grown 45%; Suzuki Contract Hire registrations have increased 132%.
Nine contract hire and leasing companies have requested Suzuki deals and its fleet market share (excluding Motability and rental) increased from 1.04% to 1.25%.
Finalists: Hyundai UK, Mercedes-Benz, Suzuki GB, Toyota GB
Award sponsored by: Athlon
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Jeremy has been a journalist for 30 years, 20 of which have been in business-to-business automotive. He was a writer and news editor on Fleet News for three years. He is Bauer B2B’s head of digital operations helping to manage the digital assets of Fleet News and Commercial Fleet, together with sister-brands AM and Rail. For six years he was AM's editor.
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