Gary Brooks has set out to boost sales from the local business community since his appointment as dealer principal at Springfield Citroën in Gateshead.

One of his first actions after starting the job on July 1 was to open a corporate sales department aimed at winning more sales with local businesses.

This has helped Springfield exceed the new car sales targets set by Citroën. The target for August was 22 new car sales and Brooks, together with his team, achieved 31. In the same month, they sold more than 70 used cars.

“In 2007 I hope to achieve 1,000 new and 1,000 used car sales,” he says, adding that the corporate team’s goal is to “sell 150 new cars in the remainder of 2006 and 400 in 2007”.

Brooks says he’s seen the dealership take great strides in terms of staff motivation, sales, profits and relationship building with the local community.

“It’s been fantastic so far,” he tells AM. “There are great people working here.”

For the last seven years Brooks has been a management consultant providing services like staff training and coaching to a range of industries.

Prior to this he was the operational group training and development manager for Jardine Motors Group.

"It's been fantastic" Gary Brooks