5 minutes with … Anna Houldsworth, Autoglym LifeShine's head of paint protection

Anna Houldsworth joined Autoglym in 2022 as its head of LifeShine paint protection after a long career with dealer groups including Gates, Vindis, HR Owen and latterly Jardine Motors Group, where she became general manager of its Aston Martin dealership at Sevenoaks. In AM's latest 5 Minutes With interview, she shares her thoughts on the competitive paint protection market and the value it provides motor retailers.

How have you seen the market change in the last few years?

There have been some drastic changes. Whether you're talking about the agency model versus franchise model, which are completely different, we're really set up for both. That was one of the things that we implemented when I first joined three and a half years ago – developing both online and offline capabilities. One of the things we've really tried to do is to complement a showroom, rather than flood a showroom with point-of-sale material. Showrooms are beautiful places and a great experience for customers, and it's how we help support that. I am incredibly blessed to have what I feel is the most talented team. The level of support they give every dealer is completely different. It's just about understanding what a dealership business needs to really delight the customer, whether it's the sales process, enquiry management, customer handover - whatever they need.

Paint protection is a good earner for dealerships, but are they being competitive?

Right now, we obviously don't state what you can sell LifeShine for, but we do have people that sell it for a lot less and a lot more than it should be. There have been lots of changes with cost implications to dealers - such as National Insurance contributions - a lot have increased their RRP by about £100. What we've found is that price is dependent on the total offering to the customer. We have 4,000 accounts, and some dealer groups are perhaps selling car finance, paint protection, and maybe one or two other products so the RRP generally is set at a higher price point. If, however, you've got a dealer with lots of add-on products, the price point tends to be lower.

So if you've got a really strong RRP, decent pricing from us, strong margins, consistent performance, combined with all the support and training that we give to dealers - that is what drives really high engagement and high profitability. We've got focus on customer immersion, brand awareness, but also on making the customer aware of it really early on in the process with the help of our retailer digital toolkit. That offers a one-stop shop for dealers so they can have as many assets, videos, and posters at the point of sale as they need - positioned all the way through to collection of the car. We've travelled a long way since the 80s. There are points of sale everywhere. 

It's about making sure, from a consistency perspective, that the product is presented in the right way, every time - which supports the customer to make an informed decision.

With the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), how do you see dealerships' customer touchpoints evolving?

We have had some delicate conversations with vehicle manufacturers over who takes the profit, because if you do it at OEM level, it removes the profit from the dealer. So it's a difficult one. For me, it's interesting when it comes to EV leasing. I think we're going to really see a change in how vehicles are funded through EV ownership cycles. We support leasing companies already, so for me, it’s a case of how we make sure that we keep maintenance costs low through maybe two or three cycles of ownership. Someone's brand new car is someone else’s new car when it's three years old. It doesn't matter how old the car is - it’s that person's new car based on affordability. I think sometimes in the network people forget that.

Paint protection should always be offered at every point, because it just keeps the car looking fantastic. One of the big things I saw when I joined the business was that it was very science-based. But people buy things on a lifestyle basis, and I think when it comes to EVs, paint protection is increasingly going to become a lifestyle choice. The challenge is how to make it affordable on a short-term ownership but long-term maintenance basis. The durability is sensational and represents a profit opportunity when it's sold on - less maintenance, less scratching, less prep cost. And it also does keep stock turning at a really nice fluid level, because the cars look good.

What paint protection opportunities should dealers grasp next ?

I think the biggest opportunity is actually aftersales, if I'm honest, and it's one of the areas that we're really getting into. People forget there are two sales departments in a dealership and both have customers. It is aftersales which has the biggest time with CSI. So we've done some really nice things really try to elevate that experience for customers when they come and have their vehicle serviced.