Peterborough car supermarket sales joy
The job may be "on its knees" as they say in the car trade, but it's not all doom and gloom, especially for Peterborough-based Motorpoint.
The job may be "on its knees" as they say in the car trade, but it's not all doom and gloom, especially for Peterborough-based Motorpoint.The car supermarket giant, which is based on the Boongate Industrial Estate, has just posted its best first quarter sales figure in its history – up more than 28 per cent between January and March 2009 (compared with the same period the previous year).
Headed by general manager Jean-Paul Russek, the company is currently drawing customers to its five-acre site in Edgerly Drain Road from across the whole of East Anglia, London and the South East.
This comes as new car sales nationally continue to fall alarmingly. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the number of cars sold is down 30.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Motorpoint Peterborough has been making waves since it was launched just over two years ago, with its 37-strong workforce selling a staggering 5,000 cars per year. Until then, the car supermarket concept was largely unknown to motorists in the region.
Motorpoint argues it has changed all of that and, as an independent, is able to offer a range of makes and models under one roof that is not matched by anyone else in East Anglia.
This year, based on its existing levels, it expects to hit the 6,500 mark. Last month alone, Motorpoint sold 802 vehicles across its five sites in one week – or one every 5.38 minutes*, aided by savings of more than 50 per cent on UK list price and a healthy take-up of 09-reg cars. It has recently recruited additional sales staff to help meet demand.
Finance sales are also holding up, in spite of the credit crunch, with in-house products such as Boomerang, the company's Personal Finance Purchase (PCP) plan, now accounting for one in five sales – as motorists look to lease rather than buy their vehicles to avoid being caught out by negative equity.
Ford continues to remain the most popular manufacturer among its customers, closely followed by Vauxhall and Volkswagen, with the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus the two top sellers.
However, demand for premium saloons from manufacturers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, among others, has shown the most dramatic rise, up 35 per cent, with savers cashing in their ISAs, for example, to take advantage of deals such as an 08-reg Saab 9-3 1.9 TiD for 12,799 – a saving of more than 12,000 on an equivalent new model.
Jean-Paul said: "Although we are in the midst of an economic downturn, you would never guess it from the volume of business we're getting through the door.
"Peterborough has enjoyed a record start to 2009 in terms of sales, surpassing even our wildest expectations, with customers travelling from as far afield as Kent in the south and Scunthorpe in the north to take advantage of the great deals we have on offer.
"It is a difficult time for retailers in general," added Jean-Paul."But as our results have demonstrated, there doesn't seem to be any let-up in demand for our cars, and I don't see this really changing in the foreseeable future."
One of the contributing factors to its success, it claims, is its customer service. The company recently became one of only five dealers in the UK to receive the Highly Approved Trader (HAT) standard from Honest John. The respected consumer champion and Daily Telegraph columnist singled out the car supermarket for consistently showing outstanding service, reliability and value for money over the last few years.
Jean-Paul added: "We are committed to offering customers great deals on great cars and the HAT Standard illustrates this perfectly. We are in the throws of a recession and people are looking for their money to go as far as possible. And when it comes to getting themselves a bargain, be it a new or nearly-new car, there is nowhere better than Motorpoint."
*Based on a 72-hour working week
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