Corkills Volkswagen dealer principal Jacqui Kaye, centre, with Sophie Raworth and Sun Motors' Jim Murray-Jones

 

Jacqui Kaye is the brand manager or dealer principal for two Corkills Volkswagen operations in Lancashire, a full dealership in Wigan and a used car and authorised repair site in Southport. Since she was appointed to the role in October 2011, both VW businesses have seen profitable growth. In her first full year, combined net profit increased 92.3% at the two operations.

She achieved this by concentrating on a number of areas: Employing a telemarketing specialist to proactively manage and make service bookings increased retail hours sold and hours per invoice.

	Dealer Principal/General Manager of the Year

Kaye has also introduced an electronic vehicle health check system to both sites, leading to significant improvement in upselling red and amber work, and penetration of service plan sales has risen quickly following extra attention.

In sales, Kaye has replaced an established pay plan that concentrated on profit contribution alone with one balancing profit and volume. This has enabled the business to achieve targets and volume-related bonuses. Vehicle gross profit per unit in the retail sales department has improved too, and replacing fleet department personnel has led to growth in local business sales. A handover specialist was appointed to free up sales executives’ time to concentrate on sales.

In her role as the business leader, Kaye has introduced annual appraisals and an employee of the year award. She holds monthly business updates to share positive news and highlight opportunities, and six-monthly updates publish the results of a staff satisfaction survey and identify areas of the working environment that the team would like to improve.

Kaye, who worked for Volkswagen UK as an area manager prior to joining Corkills, has successfully transferred her skills and experience directly into the retail network.

Also shortlisted: Amarjit Shokar (Romford Mazda); Paul McCreadie; (Mercedes-Benz Retail Group); Peter Jiggins

(Mercedes-Benz Retail Group)

Previous winners: 2013 Chris Eccles (Bowker BMW)

Category sponsored by Sun Motors.