Kia gets Toyota MD
June 5th, 2009 by Richard Aucock
TOYOTA former sales director Michael Cole is to take the top seat at fast-growing Korean brand Kia.
He replaces Paul Philpott, who has moved to Europe to take the top chief operating officer seat.
And it will be UK car dealers who’ll be key to the new man achieving his ambitious aims!
Qualified chartered accountant Cole has been at Toyota since 1995. However, car dealers may know him from his decade with Ford’s car dealer network before that.
In 2001, he took a key role in Toyota’s marketing division, and was also later involved with aftersales. Latterly, he snared the sales director role.
The 45 year old said he was ‘very excited’ by the opportunity.
Kia is ‘poised to grow dramatically over the coming years, with a strong ambition to achieve in excess of 50,000 sales in the UK.
‘Korean ambition knows no boundaries, and I’m hoping to emulate that through what we do at Kia Motors in the UK.’
But it was working with the UK dealer network that particularly excited Cole.
‘I am looking forward to working with the team at Kia, and its dealer network, to achieve strong sales growth – with profit – over the coming years.’
Philpott fully supported Cole’s aims to focus attention on the UK car dealer network.
‘Like me, he firmly believes that at the heart of any franchise has to be a strong partnership between the manufacturer and the dealer network.’
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