“I’m always at 100%. I love it.” The opening gambit of Livingstone Motor Group managing director and the 2022 AM Awards DP/GM of the Year Andrew Iveson gave an initial insight into the mindset of the man who has driven a complete strategic restructure for the Hull-based car retail business since early 2021.

When Mitsubishi departed the UK market its 103 franchisees had their entrepreneurialism put to the test and Iveson’s energy has clearly seen his Hull-based operation pass with flying colours.

Following the news that Hull Mitsubishi – a franchisee of the Japanese brand for more than 30 years – would lose its only retail partner he moved to complete a management buy-out (MBO) as he looked to realise his vision of giving the business and its workforce a new lease of life.

What followed was a rebrand as Livingstone Motor Group – completed in consultation with staff – and the introduction of Isuzu UK, SsangYong and Subaru to a single multi-brand dealership.

“I had 20 faces looking at me to solve this problem,” Iveson recalled of the start of the business’s make-or-break pivotal period of change in his AM Awards submission.

Speaking to AM at the dealership, located on Livingstone Road, within sight of the Humber Bridge off the busy A63 dual carriageway, the former sales director says: “I remember approaching Jim (Clutterbrook, former Hull Mitsubishi owner) and telling him that I wanted to take on the business and find new franchises.

“He was 63 at the time and, really, it was the only option available. I’d been offered jobs at other dealer groups, but I always wanted to stay and build the business, to realise the potential I know we have thanks to our reputation locally.

“I approached the other shareholders and they were really supportive. We ended up buying Jim out and that was when I realised what I had and the work really started.

"It’s been a huge effort, but the work put by the whole team has been phenomenal. We never missed a beat.”

Livingstone Motor Group’s MBO shareholders are father and son team Chris and Lawrence Green, the owners and operators of Hullbased Green’s The Signmakers. Their business provides illuminated store signage to major retailers including Currys, Carpetright and, latterly, Tesla.

“Chris was an existing shareholder in Hull Mitsubishi, and I approached his son Lawrence to explore the possibility of the MBO,” Iveson recalls. “Their support has been amazing, and they are as keen as I am to see the business grow.

"That’s the phase we’re entering now. We’re ready to invest.”

Not satisfied with the transformation that has already taken place at Livingstone, Iveson is now making plans to expand the prominent site of its existing multi-brand operation by some 30%. While Iveson says the business is currently “100% focussed” on being the best partner it can be to its new franchise partners he is also eager to forge new relationships and has progressed negotiations over potential new dealership locations both nearby and in Lincolnshire.

When AM visited, hedges had been trimmed to take full advantage of the visibility from the A38 of Livingstone Motor Group’s current site, which is situated within yards of Hatfields Land Rover, Minstergate Hyundai and Carsupermarket.com’s Hessle retail site. Iveson says: “This is a brilliant location. There’s great potential to introduce another brand here, but we have options elsewhere.

“Ideally we’d like another couple of franchises, potentially something more mainstream. Here, we have the option to expand, but there is also the option of other sites in Hull, East Yorkshire or Lincolnshire.”

Livingstone Motor Group has a 4.7 out-of-five rating on Google and is 4.9 rated on Facebook. Iveson knows the kind of brands its reputation for delivering a friendly customer service and value-for-money is likely to attract.

A move into premium does not appear to be on the cards, but he is curious about the potential of the emerging electric vehicle (EV)-focused Chinese car brands. “If you can tell me which one’s most likely to succeed, that would be helpful,” he says.

Livingstone has settled into life with its new franchised partners well and is keen to see them grow in unison with a new focus on delivering a higher volume of used car sales. There is huge local demand for Isuzu’s high-quality pick-ups and a strong local market for the all-wheel drive Subaru range, according to Iveson, but the availability of supply means SsangYong has proven to be its standout performer so far.

“Dealing with all three brands has been very good from day one, but supplies have been an issue,” says Iveson.

“I’ve been blown away by SsangYong. We’ve sold 100 this year and we should have done the same in Isuzu and Subaru, but we simply cannot get the stock.” Iveson likes the balance of product that Isuzu, SsangYong and Subaru have brought to the dealership and – as is his hands-on, open-door approach to his MD role – he signed-off a sale agreement on a Subaru Solterra EV during AM’s interview, quickly exiting his office to meet the customers.

He rates the SsangYong Korando e-Motion EV higher than many of its key market rivals and says that the Solterra offers a more premium alternative. Either way, Iveson is “excited” about the potential of SsangYong after its recent acquisition. On November 11, SsangYong Motor Company announced that it had completed the repayment of the rehabilitation debt with funds resulting from its acquisition by the KG Group.

Livingstone Motor Group issued cup cakes to staff and customers to mark the occasion.

Iveson says: “It’s reassuring for staff and customers to know about the takeover and the ambitious plans it has for the future. If we’d just handed out a printed memo it could have been great news that nobody would have read.”

Stock shortages and the buoyant margins which come with the market’s lofty used car values have motivated Iveson to commit more of his own time to focus on pre-owned vehicles.

The group’s marketing functions have been handed over to another staff member to free-up his time to assume greater control of both the sourcing and sale of used cars and workshop efficiencies.

So far, its used car profit per unit stands at £1,936 in 2022, before potential add-ons such as GAP insurance and paint protection, Iveson says. The aim is to achieve a new to used car sales ratio of 1:1, but Iveson admits it has been closer to 2:1 at times.

“Our used car forecourt is around 30% bigger than it used to be when 95% of the stock was Mitsubishi,” he says. “Now we have a wider offering. I’m aiming for 50% of the stock to be with our brands.

“With Mitsubishi we were selling 200 to 230 new cars a year. Next year I’ve set a target of selling 450 new and used cars but, if we can sell 250 new, then I’d like to think we can also sell 250 to 300 used cars on top of that.” The focus on used cars comes hand-inhand with a bid to boost aftersales revenues at a time when EVs – and the reduced aftersales opportunity they represent – are starting to feature more prominently in Livingstone’s future.

Iveson has introduced an in-house used car service plan to ensure that it retains a larger portion of its growing used car customer base for more of a vehicle’s lifecycle. If Livingstone’s volume targets are met it should produce impressive results.

During AM’s visit Iveson said the business, which achieved a turnover of £8.4 million and £197,000 net profit in its financial year to December 31, 2021, was delivering a 7% return on sales so far in 2022. Last year’s profitability was lower than it might have been due to investment in a reconfigured showroom and upstairs office space, alongside the addition of new signage, but still exceeded 2019.

Without that cost, the target for 2023 is to reach £300,000 net profit. “This year (2022) will be down on last year, but there has been a lot of change,” says Iveson. “If we don’t do £300,000 next year I’ll be disappointed.”

The re-training of the dealership’s four technicians to work with the three new franchised partners and a wider variety of used cars has proved central to the business’s profitability. Iveson says overhead absorption stood at 120% at the time of AM’s visit, up from around 85% at the start of the year, with around £40,000-worth of labour being sold each month.

“The reality that we don’t have to sell a new car to make a profit is amazing,” he says. “But it’s been a learning curve. It was clear that it was going to take time for the technicians to get used to working on a lot of new product.

“With the wider variety of used cars we’re now selling, we’ll hopefully be able to broaden our horizons from an aftersales point-of view as well.”

Livingstone Motor Group’s workforce has remained stable throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, its MBO and adoption of new leadership and brand partners. During the pandemic, the dealership’s workshop remained open for essential workers and staff were paid 100% of their wage whether they were furloughed or were part of a “COVID crew” who worked throughout.

After maintaining the team’s wages throughout the pandemic, Iveson has since restructured his sales team’s wages to account for the sector’s dearth of new car supply and long lead times. The decision was made to pay staff full commission at the point of securing a sale and then again at the point of handover if that period spanned more than three months.

“Essentially, we’re paying commission twice, but it immediately got the team selling again,” Iveson says.

“We’re also taking full margin on a vehicle at the moment and, while that may not last forever, at a time when lead times are so long it’s just the right thing to do.”

During our visit to Hull, Iveson informed AM of a separate bid to boost staff morale. His entire workforce was later issued with £100-worth of Amazon vouchers to ease their Christmas spending burden.

Iveson says: “Everybody likes to buy a Christmas gift for somebody else. The whole idea is that if I can take a bit of that pressure off them, so they can use £100 per family to buy some Christmas presents, then that alleviates that problem.

“I’m not in a position to solve the problems of the world, but it’s morally right to do what we can and issue a bit of an extra ‘thank you’ for all the team’s hard work.”

While Iveson is keen to support his team he asserts that there is no room in small business for anyone not pulling their weight. He also freely admits that the business is underpinned by one strict core principle – a zero tolerance approach to negative talk in the showroom. “I won’t have it and the team are really good at calling it out,” he says.

“My door is always open for anyone with an issue or a problem they want to chat about, but, in the showroom, the main thing I want is positivity. We’re here to create a positive and fun environment for people to buy a car. The last thing we want is anything to detract from that.”

Iveson says he is keen to leverage solutions that will allow him to scale the Livingstone business. The addition of online service booking to a new website created by Autoweb Design is among the key priorities. “The team that I have around me is fantastic,” he says.

“It was a leap of faith to follow me through the transition the business has seen and they’ve done an amazing job to get us to where we are. “Now we really need to reduce the number of processes and inputs so we can grow the business efficiently with the talent that we have.”

Regular leaps of faith that staff still regularly embark upon at Livingstone Motor Group are the business’s home-grown sales events.

Since the completion of the MBO at the start of 2021 Iveson has placed much emphasis on “building a brand” that is known to local car buyers as he looks to drive loyalty in tandem with its new multifranchise and used car approach to car retail. A sales process which introduces customers to more than one member of staff – to ensure a familiar friendly face on each visit – is core to its customer service philosophy.

Regular and sometimes outlandish homegrown customer incentive ideas and sales events are another part. One saw the dealership decked out like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory to mark the grand re-opening after COVID-19.

Another introduced a herd of (artificial) farmyard animals to the showroom.

Iveson says he would rather invest in realising his own ideas than commissioning outside events providers to handle such projects, but admits that his team can sometimes express doubts. “The team are up for anything, but when you ask them to dress up like Willy Wonka it can become a challenge,” he says.

“We invest a lot of time in events and games with prizes for customers in the showroom though and, while it’s a lot of effort, the customers absolutely love it.

“The Willy Wonka event came right after lockdown and we absolutely have never sold as many cars in such a short space of time. Buying a car should be a great experience – really good fun if it can be – and that’s what we always aim to deliver.”

Whether Iveson’s enthusiasm and energy kicked up a gear when he was faced by the business’s fight for survival is hard to know. What is clear is that it is still there in abundance. Now his sights are set firmly on growth and he appears to be relishing the additional challenge that will bring.

Reflecting on his short, but intense, journey as boss of a car retail group so far, he says: “Entering the AM Awards proved to be an eye-opener. When you actually take the time to sit down and write out what you've done over the past year, it really puts things into perspective. It really has been seven days a week, every single day for a year to make sure everything happened as it did.”

He concludes: “I love it, though, and we’re just getting started."