Hyundai dealer cull
August 21st, 2009 by Richard Aucock
HYUNDAI UK boss Tony Whitehorn has revealed a big franchise car dealer cull is on the cards.
On the back of the marque’s scrappage success, the MD has taken the opportunity to look closely at his network.
In an exclusive interview with Car Dealer Magazine, he revealed that Hyundai is set to cut its network by up to 15 per cent.
‘We have taken our scrappage success as an opportunity to go to our existing dealers and say to them what we expect, and ask them if they can meet our needs,’ said Whitehorn.
‘Some have said they can’t, so we’ve said to them we need to start talking about the future.
‘We have had some very hard conversations, because all of a sudden we have had a step-change for this franchise.
‘We have high profile dealer groups that want to come into the franchise, and we are using scrappage as an opportunity to raise the professionalism of our franchise.
‘This has meant we will be parting company with some of our dealers.’
REPLACEMENT PLANS
Whitehorn said 10 to 15 percent of his 140 dealers will be losing their franchise with the manufacturer, but there are plans in place to replace them.
‘We will be looking to take the network up to about 150 dealers, as we think that’s the right level for our network,’ added Whitehorn.
‘Some of the dealers we are parting company with won’t be replaced in certain areas – we’re really seeing this as an opportunity to reconfigure our network.’
The Hyundai chief added that the quality of dealers wanting to be part of his network has improved dramatically, and there are around 10 new appointments set to be announced soon.
‘We sit well alongside established brands as part of multi franchise sites,’ added Whitehorn.
‘We’re talking to a lot of people at the moment that have got the Renault franchise. Their market share is declining and because of that they have big facilities, so dealers are wanting to fill that.
‘We work well with Chrysler and Saab too. Established brands that are suffering a little bit in terms of market share. Even some big Ford facilities. They have customers coming into them and have a big servicing facility too.’
Read our interview with the Hyundai chief in the next issue of Car Dealer.
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Tags: hyundai, new car scrap, scrappage
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August 21st, 2009 at 10:00 pm
“Some have said they can’t, so we’ve said to them we need to start talking about the future.”
Corporate manufacturer speak for “Get your coat…” I’ve been out of the franchised network for years now, but nothing changes!
Does their scrappage success suddenly give them more self confidence, or has this been on the cards for a while now?