That experience inside the dealership is still vital, for despite the group being able to take online deposits to reserve used cars, only 1% of its customers actually do so. Despite offering a £75 discount for online reservations, and backing these with a 30-day no quibble refund policy, it appears consumers still want

to commit inside the showroom.

The same desire to engage with customers and the wider community that informs Wessex Garages’ charity efforts (see panel, right) is also behind the Wessex Premier Club. The web-based initiative is free to join and offers rewards such as a free Bristol City FC scarf or discounts on partnered beauty and leisure services as well as half-priced MoT tests and discounted servicing.

It provides added value to customers, shows them it’s not all about selling them another car, and encourages customers to share their email addresses for Wessex Garages’ database of 40,000 active customers. That database, cleansed in 2011, is a crucial tool because the business does its own electronic marketing, with email offers set in-house.

 

Growing a group with consistent profits

In the 17 years since Brock was brought in by Wessex Garages founder and chairman Steve Patch, the business has grown into a consistently profitable regional group with 2013 sales expected to exceed £120 million.

It began in Bristol with a single Nissan dealership 27 years ago. Today it has six sites in Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and Gloucester and represents Nissan, Kia, Fiat, Hyundai, Alfa Romeo and Abarth. A Citroën franchise in Hereford was closed in 2008 when the showroom’s lease expired.  

Hyundai in Newport is Wessex Garages’ most recent addition, having opened in August at a former Volkswagen showroom. Next in the pipeline is a £5m new Nissan dealership to open at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway in 2015. That will be its seventh trading location, as the Pennywell Road Nissan site will remain as a service centre, commercial vehicle operation and head office.

Brock described the business as a portfolio of exciting brands with genuine growth potential that is product-led. “I think if it’s built on product it’s more sustainable. It’s not like they’ve just thrown a lot of money at the marketplace, they’ve actually got genuine customers pulling and wanting the brand,” he said.