Autocar

NORMAN’S FIVE-POINT RECOVERY PLAN

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The five-prong plan sounds simple but it’s very bold, especially for the Vauxhall of the old school. In short, it goes like this:

Boost sales of light commerical vehicles from the current 9% to 14-15% with the aim of becoming a strong number two to Ford in this market and get closer to the sales performanc­es of the past. Use a slimmeddow­n three-van range with the new Vivaro as a springboar­d. Reorganise LCV dealers into between 50 and 75 “van business centres”.

Keep backing off pre-registrati­ons, a practice that cuts profit margins and makes sales less valuable. This should be possible as quality of products keeps improving. Reversing the well-known John Lewis slogan, Norman says Vauxhall must stop “underselli­ng ourselves” to a point where the incentives stop working.

Refranchis­e the dealer body, cutting the current 330 dealership­s to 250 by 2020, boosting average annual sales per dealer from 290 to 415 units. Norman promises “a radical effect” on dealer viability. This new policy has been under way for several months, and he has been roundly criticised for it. “Leaving things unchanged would do a disservice to dealers themselves,” he says.

Reorganise parts distributi­on, setting up 46 countrywid­e group parts hubs, selling not just Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroën and DS parts, but other makes’ components as well. Manufactur­ers have been losing earnings on parts – this is a way of fighting back.

Improve Vauxhall’s brand strength, a move already started with the ‘True Brit’ campaign, which will soon give way to a ‘Keep calm and carry on’ SUV theme. There’s another in the pipeline whose message will be: “Don’t do ‘ish’, do British.” The inference is that typically British messages sometimes lack positivity – as in ‘slowish’ or ‘smallish’ – but liking British can be wholly positive.

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