UMBERTO BENUCCI APPOINTED Chief Executive Officer of BRANDED FINANCIAL SERVICES
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The Ateco Group
§ Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd / § The Ateco Group New Zealand§ European Automotive Imports / § European Automotive Imports – South Africa
§ Branded Financial Services Pty Ltd / § Ateco Properties Pty Ltd
UMBERTO BENUCCI APPOINTED Chief Executive Officer OF BRANDED FINANCIAL SERVICES
Umberto Benucci has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Branded Financial Services, the company that provides retail and dealer financial services for the Ateco group of companies in both Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Benucci’s appointment follows the appointment of Roger Zagorski, the previous CEO of Branded Financial Services, to the role of Managing Director of the Ateco group of companies. Branded Financial Services has a portfolio valued in excess of $150 million with more than 5,000 customers across Australia and New Zealand. As its name suggests, the company provides financial services under names of the brands handled by the dealers with which it works.
Mr Benucci has been both General Manager of the New Zealand operations of Branded Financial Services and its Manager of Credit Risk on both sides of the Tasman since 2012.
“Umberto has been with Branded Financial Services from our early days and has played a central role in the success of the company,” says Roger Zagorski, Managing Director of the Ateco group of companies. “As manager of Credit Risk and head of New Zealand Operations, he has both run a key component of the whole company and run the whole business in one of our two markets, providing him with a unique and complete competency in the business as a whole. I have no doubt that he will grow and develop Branded Financial and that this will also assist the growth of the Ateco group of companies.”
Prior to joining Branded Financial Services in 2012, Mr Benucci had worked for Daimler Chrysler Financial Services in New Zealand, Germany and South Africa in key credit risk management roles. Born in Zimbabwe, Mr Benucci’s career started with some of South Africa’s largest banks before he joined the automotive industry in 2000.
“Growing Branded Financial Services with Roger has been the highlight of my career thanks to freedom provided to us by Neville Crichton, the Executive Chairman and owner of the Ateco group of companies, to develop a new type of company best suited to meeting the changing needs of dealers,” says Umberto Benucci. “To now be given the role of taking this success to the next level in its development is a fresh challenge that I look forward to meeting.”
Mr Benucci, who is married, will continue to live in Auckland, running the business for both sides of the Tasman from the Mt Wellington facility of the Ateco group of companies.
(ENDS)
The Ateco group of companies
Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd
· Headquarters in Sydney with branch offices in Melbourne and Brisbane
· Distributes LDV, Ssangyong, Chery, Foton, Foton Trucks in Australia
The Ateco Group New Zealand
· Headquarters in Mt Wellington, Auckland
· Distributes Jeep, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, Foton Utes and Chery in New Zealand
European Automotive Imports
· Headquarters in Sydney
· Distributes Maserati in Australia and New Zealand
European Automotive Imports – South Africa
· Headquarters in Johannesburg
· Distributes Maserati in South Africa, owns Maserati retail businesses in Johannesburg and Cape Town
American Special Vehicles
· A joint venture company with the Walkinshaw Group with production faculties in Melbourne and marketing and sales headquarters in Sydney
· Imports, remanufactures RAM products to RHD and distributes for sale in Australia and New Zealand
Branded Financial Services Pty Ltd
· Headquarters in Sydney
· Provides dealer and retail financial services in Australia and New Zealand
Ateco Properties
· Headquarters in Sydney
· Manages properties in Australia and New Zealand
NEVILLE CRICHTON CNZM
Executive Chairman, The Ateco Group
Neville Crichton’s business and sporting careers are unique, with the New Zealand-born businessman developing and growing the Ateco group of companies into one of the largest independent locally owned car importers and, at the same time, carving a sporting career first as a car racing driver and then as an internationally renowned ocean racing yachtsman.
Neville Crichton began his business life in New Zealand, working first with Ford before moving to the USA where his retail and wholesale interests included Ferrari, Mazda, Volkswagen, Audi and Rolls Royce. In 1985 he took over Ateco, a small general engineering and import business, and has, over the intervening years making it the right company for car makers wishing to independently grow and develop their Australian and New Zealand businesses. Brands that have sought Ateco’s resources and skills in past have included Suzuki, Volkswagen, Citroen, Ferrari, Audi and Kia. Under Ateco in Australia and the Ateco group in New Zealand as well as its sister company, European Automotive Imports are a unique range of brands, from the exclusive Maserati brand, through premium brands such as Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Jeep, to the Chinese brands, first Great Wall in 2010, Chery in 2011, Foton in 2013 and LDV in 2015.
Based in a $38 million facility in Sydney, The Ateco Group oversees the distribution of Maserati, Chery, and Foton, throughout Australia and New Zealand and Ssangyong in Australia. Its Equipment Division distributes WARN off road equipment and RidePRO suspension and a property division is responsible for a range of commercial and retail buildings. The company also handles Maserati in South Africa which it operated both the distribution and two retail businesses and in New Zealand Ateco represents Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Neville Crichton has also played a central and decisive role in creating New Zealand’s super yacht construction industry which, through his foresight and expertise has grown from literally nothing to a billion dollar business that enjoys a worldwide reputation for design, quality and technology
Alongside his impressive business career, Neville Crichton has also enjoyed considerable sporting success. This started as a car racing driver in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, but his real passion is ocean racing and with three generations of yacht carrying the ‘Alfa Romeo’ name, as part of sponsorship programme in Europe, he won 174 ocean yacht races in Europe, America and Australia including the Rolex Sydney Hobart, the Rolex Fastnet, the TransPac and every title that was available in the Rolex Giraglia Trophy in just seven years.
For further information, please contact
Neville Crichton CNZMExecutive Chairman / Tel: (02) 8577 8000
The Ateco Group / Fax: (02) 8577 8199
E:
Edward Rowe
The Ateco Group / Tel: (02) 8577 8015
Fax: (02) 8577 3555
Mob: 0407 913 244
E:
ATECO AUTOMOTIVE PTY LTD
Street Address: 862 – 874 Elizabeth Street, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW 2017Australia. Postal Address: Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd,Locked Bag 5018, Alexandria NSW 2015, Australia A.B.N. 34 000 486 706
Ateco Media web site: http://media.ateco.com.au/