Car dealers have told AM that a new-look plate-change period which goes without the traditional March car sales mayhem and eases the year’s trading peaks and troughs is “good news” for the sector.
Click the thumbs up >Forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to adapt to changing restrictions including showroom closures and shifting sales online, most dealers have unlocked new ways of working, many of which will be here to stay.
AM spoke to four senior directors in the sector – Daksh Gupta, CEO at Marshall Motor Group; Paul Hendy, CEO of Hendy Group; Nathan Tomlinson, dealer principal at Devonshire Motors; and Graeme Potts, CEO at Eden Motor Group – to understand some of the positive outcomes the three lockdowns have inspired.
HOW HAS THE SCALING UP OF DIGITAL CHANGED THE WAY YOU WORK?
Daksh Gupta: If you had said to me in January last year when our business was flying, everything you sell would be done without people coming into your showroom, I would have said ‘you’re joking’. We sold almost 7,000 cars in January this year which is just incredible. Our industry has proved that it can be adaptable, entrepreneurial and innovative.