Renault Trucks have taken the plunge and spent a total of £9 million in the UK this year – £5 million on their new headquarters and £4 million on a flagship dealership in “Coventry”.
Either the French company are greatly in need of a map of the UK or their dealership-naming department used to work for the British Airports Authority. London Stansted and London Luton have nothing on Renault Trucks Coventry – located firmly in the middle of Nuneaton.
Constructed on the site of the old Lynx Distribution warehouse, the new site has a four-bay workshop with two full-length pits and even a showroom capable of housing a Tractor unit. Van servicing is taken care of by dedicated technicians and a dedicated bay under Renault Trucks’ “Fast & Pro” brand.
The 2 ½ acre site is controlled by the wholly owned Renault Trucks Commercials’ Tipton branch under the stewardship of dealer principal Chris Hammond. The straight-talking Black Country Boss has done a great job at the Tipton branch, winning awards and keeping their heads well above water in these testing economic times.
The new site does not replace an existing facility – the Tipton branch is too far away to service the businesses in the ‘Coventry’ catchment area – especially bearing in mind the appalling traffic in the area. As a consequence the £5m facility has just a handful of customers. “It is a chicken and egg situation,” comments Hammond, “it is hard to get customers for a facility that isn’t completed and it is a bold move to build a facility with no customers lined up.
However, the company has already signed up a maintenance deal with a 250-strong trailer fleet.
As the site is not yet fully operational there are just ten new jobs that have been created. This number is set to increase as the levels of business increase. With four technicians already employed, the business plan for the facility is to house up to 15 technicians billing a targeted 3,000 hours per month.
On the sales side, there is already one dedicated salesperson in place – Hammond is actively recruiting for another sales specialist to start before the end of the year. If you have local knowledge and fancy a move to a brand new dealership – give Chris a call.
Day to day management of the Coventry site will be under the stewardship of Rob Flemwell, recently of Gerard Mann, whilst the key parts and service roles will be taken on by Tipton management as dual roles.
Freelance Journalist for Commercial Vehicles. Writes for CV Dealer monthly C V Dealer Monthly and vanlocator