Winners - Most Improved Business

Stourbridge Volkswagen scooped first prize in the recent Motor Trader National Awards celebration held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

Winning the award in the ‘Most Improved Business’ category against stiff national competition is the highlight of their first year of operation for Stourbridge Volkswagen. The award is judged taking into consideration financial performance, business investment, customer and colleague satisfaction in addition to the overall business turnaround. The West Midlands based dealership is enjoying increasing success since being acquired by Trust Group UK Ltd, an independent motor group formed in March 2006.

With an exceptional first 10 months of trading behind them the management team were confident of success on the night. Andrew Hockedy, Trust Group UK Managing Director, commented that while there was an element of confidence in the numbers and overall performance of the business, the dealership was up against other established dealer groups with strong track records of performance. ‘We felt that we had a strong opportunity, and we are thrilled to have been recognized with this fantastic award, it means a lot to the business and gives all of the colleagues within the company a feeling of pride and achievement.’

The dealership’s success was endorsed by Ross Martin, Volkswagen GB Area Manager who said that ‘since working alongside the team at Stourbridge it has been great to see not just improving financial performance, but also increasing customer satisfaction ratings that now put Stourbridge Volkswagen ahead of the national average criteria for the Volkswagen network’.

During the qualifying period the team at Stourbridge were able to demonstrate to the judging panel within Motor Trader New and Used car volume increases of 41%, Aftersales profitability improvement of 26.5% and overall turnover growth of 53%, with a bottom line positive margin movement of 4.82%. The new Groups Finance Director, Nigel White, confirmed that the turnaround figures were industry leading and reflected the strength in the local management teams ability. Nigel added, ‘aside from the fact that the company is a new start up business, with all of the additional pressures that this brings, to be able to demonstrate such positive movement in a market that is recognized to be in slow down is a credit to all involved’.