Spring 2019 The VoiceThe OfficialNFDA magazine for the Industry In this issue... • Drive My Career • Dealer Attitude Survey • BEN - Your new best friend • HR - Quarterly Review Plus... ...and more! The Voice interviews Clive Brook, Managing Director of Clive Brook Ltd. Welcome to the Spring Edition of the Voice In March, we ran a successful (Electric Vehicle Approved) target audience continues to round of regional meetings scheme have now been improve. across the country. Your audited. During the pilot, There are still few spaces feedback is vital in setting which was endorsed by the available for the NFDA Spring the direction of our work in Government’s Office for Low Ball taking place on 11 May key industry areas such as Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and at the luxurious Grove Hotel new and used car market, the Energy Saving Trust, we in Hertfordshire. Get your aftersales, manufacturer have received positive and tickets, we look forward to relationships, and F&I. Please Sue Robinson constructive feedback from celebrating automotive retail Director, NFDA find dates and venues for the members involved. The excellence with you! June’s regionals below. official launch and opening of Dear Colleague, NFDA is your trade March saw also the the scheme will take place in Despite the challenges posed association: we represent, publication of the latest NFDA May. by a number of external you benefit. If you would like Dealer Attitude Survey. It factors, the automotive In February, Drive My Career to discuss any of the issues was encouraging to see that retail sector continues to celebrated its first anniversary. in the magazine, please do retailers’ satisfaction levels demonstrate its resilience. This unique, industry-first not hesitate to contact our with the relationship with their Over the past months, I have employment initiative has member helpline at 01788 manufacturers continued the met with NFDA’s European achieved a number of 538 303 or email positive trend. Please find counterparts to ensure a key milestones during its [email protected]. more details in this issue of joint approach to overcome first twelve months. There The Voice. common obstacles and are now more than 1,000 pursue shared goals. More The dealerships that took part participating dealerships details will follow. in the pilot phase of our EVA and engagement with our NFDA 2019 REGIONAL MEETINGS: DATES & VENUES NFDA’s quarterly regional meetings take place across the UK to provide franchised retailers with an opportunity to discuss the most topical industry issues facing their businesses. Topics usually include new and used car market, manufacturer relationships, aftersales, F&I as well as HR and employment, with a focus on Drive My Career. MIDLAND SOUTHERN NFDA COMMERCIAL Hilton Northampton Hilton, Cobham VEHICLE COMMITTEE • Tuesday 11 June • Tuesday 12 June* 201 Great Portland Street, London • Tuesday 10 September • Tuesday 17 September • Wednesday 5 June • Tuesday 10 December • Tuesday 17 December • Thursday 19 September • Wednesday 4 December SOUTH WEST NORTH EASTERN Holiday Inn, Bristol Holiday Inn, York *This meeting will take place at CDX 2019 • Thursday 6 June • Wednesday 19 June (Car Dealer Expo 2019) at the Farnborough • Tuesday 5 September • Thursday 12 September International Conference & Events Centre. • Thursday 5 December • Thursday 12 December If you would like to attend NORTHERN NMDA COMMITTEE a meeting, please contact: Park Royal, Warrington 201 Great Portland Street, London [email protected] • Tuesday 25 June • Thursday 20 June • Tuesday 24 September • Thursday 26 September • Tuesday 3 December • Wednesday 18 December 2 AML19_FPAD(SavetheDate).qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 15:49 Page 1 NEC, Birmingham 7th NOVEMBER 2019 NFDA 2019 REGIONAL MEETINGS: DATES & VENUES SAVE THE 7th DATE NOV 2019 automotivemanagementlive.co.uk @AMLIVE2019 #AMLIVE 3 Drive My Career MARKS FIRST ANNIVERSARY WITH KEY MILESTONES Drive My Career has celebrated its first successful year achieving a number of key milestones. This is a unique employment initiative which was launched in February 2018 to address franchised retailers’ concerns that young people do not consider the automotive retail sector as an option for their professional careers. Drive My Career is not a job site. It uses highly-targeted Drive My Career to retailers’ career pages every month. digital marketing campaigns to reach a target audience of 16 to 24 years old potential candidates. The campaigns Every month, about 700,000 people hear about Drive My run across several, different digital channels to make young Career and working in the automotive industry people aware of the variety of roles available in the industry #DMCApprenticeTakeover and the rewarding sides of a career in automotive retail. These often challenge misconceptions of our sector and During the National Apprenticeships Week and National promote diversity and transparency. Careers Week, which took place from 4 to 8 of March, Drive My Career ran a campaign which encouraged its Drive My Career engages with a community of active users on key social media platforms, in particular, Facebook, members to hand over their social media channels to their Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. apprentices. The ultimate goal is to connect young people with dealers Apprentices from companies including Marshall Motor in their local area. On the website, users can enter their Group, JCT600, TrustFord and Lookers, took to Twitter and postcode and see what retailers work in their locality other social media platforms to share insights about their through the dealer-finder map which shows all the apprenticeships. dealerships of the dealer groups across the UK that have joined the initiative. TrustFord @TrustF... • 06 Mar > Congratulations to Rob, our semi-skilled Drive My Career has achieved several key milestones in its technician who won our wheel change first year: challenge at Cribbs Causway with a winning time of 2 minutes & 37 seconds - Well done In less than six months, Drive My Career’s YouTube channel Rob #NAW19 #DMCApprenticeTakeover has reached over 200,000 views In September, the first manufacturer joined the initiative: Groupe Renault UK signed up all its NFDA member Renault and Dacia dealerships in the UK The most recent organisations to join the initiative are Sytner Group, the largest overall automotive retailer in Europe, BCA and Hendy Group. There are now more than 1,000 dealerships and 65 businesses involved More than 1,800 potential candidates are redirected through 4 JCT600’s vehicle technician apprentice Jessica Lookers @Lookers... • 07 Mar > Suffield won the best tweet. Her description of the two Are the skills that we learn in our leisure time Lookers years with the company, alongside a great choice of for you, for life transferable to roles at Lookers? According to imagery, got the most engagement on Twitter. Sam McLaughlin, #Apprentice Technician at @ Camberley Audi, the answer is: YES! 3 JCT600 Careers @JCT600... • 04 Mar > After joining JCT600 over 2 years ago to start my vehicle technician apprenticeship I’ve enjoyed every second! From the amazing people I get to meet and the opportunities the job brings! #DMCApprenticeTakeover #NAW2019 #NCW2019 By using the hashtag #DMCApprenticeTakeover, the apprentices entered a competition for the best campaign. The #DMCApprenticeTakeover reached over 200,000 people, along with over 1 million impressions in only five days! Marshall Motor Group was the overall winner as they participated with the accounts of numerous dealerships across the UK using multiple social media outlets. Marshall Audi @MarshallAudi - 6d> The winning apprentices for the best campaign and the best Marshall This is Oliver Webb, Year 2 Technician tweet received respectively a £100 and £50 voucher. #Apprentice at #Newbury #Audi! Oliver is always cheerful and fancies himself as @ During the week, Drive My Career used its own accounts MarshallGroup’s future CEO! Watch out to focus on promoting all the job sectors and roles available Daksh! #NCW2019 #NAW2019 within the automotive retail industry. Sue Robinson, NFDA Director, said, “Today’s retail automotive sector is transparent, innovative and exciting. It is vital that we communicate to the new generations outside the industry how rewarding a career in our sector can be. Going forward, we will continue to follow our members’ directions to ensure that Drive My Career keeps growing”. Drive My Career would like to thank all the companies that took part in the #DMCApprenticeTakeover campaign for their outstanding support! Oliver Webb, a year two apprentice technician, was the winner. Oliver confessed ‘he fancies himself as Marshall’s future CEO’ and even got a response from Marshall Motor Group’s CEO Daksh Gupta who said he always likes a ‘little Powered by competition’ and he will try to ‘keep the company in good shape until he takes over’. Marshall’s CEO also sent him a book titled ‘How To Become A CEO’ following his tweet! 5 SUMMARY OF FCA’S FINDINGS ON MOTOR FINANCE In March, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released This hypothesis is strengthened because of the absence of this the final findings from its work on the motor finance market. trend when studying scaled and flat structures. This suggests The findings are based on a study of consumer credit data, that other factors, such as consumer credit rating, are influencing commission structures and a mystery shopper survey of 122 interest rates for products sold under these structures. motor retailers. FCA also noted