Car retailers were among the awards as leading figures from the automotive F&I industry gathered at the F&I Conference and Awards Ceremony organised by DealTrak.

Perrys Motors’s F&I director David Johnson was inducted into the awards’ Hall of Fame as Bradford-based JCT600 was named Franchised Dealer of the Year at the event held in Leeds.

Featuring a conference before the glitz of the evening’s awards ceremony, the annual DealTrak conference attracts representatives from the UK’s leading lenders, dealers and insurers to share best practice and help to raise over £36,000 for this year’s nominated charity, the NSPCC.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘Achieving positive customer outcomes through technology and data.’

Delegates listened to keynotes from Jo Christmas at Barclays Partner Finance, Gary Hibberd from the Agenci, Freddy Kelly from Credit Kudos, Ben Lilywhite from Insure That and Tara Williams from iComply.

The conference was rounded off by a stirring and inspirational headline speech from Sir Ranulph Feinnes.

“Those that didn’t attend missed something very special,” said Martin Hill, managing director of DealTrak.

“We had insightful content from first class speakers, the world’s most famous explorer, Sir Ranulph and unparalleled networking opportunities.

“On behalf of DealTrak, my eternal thanks go to everyone that attended, took part, sponsored (especially headline sponsor Barclays Partner Finance) exhibited, donated, pledged money, placed auction bids and of course to those that helped to bring the whole thing together.

“Many congratulations to all the Award finalists and of course the winners. We can’t wait to do it all again next year.”

The full list of awards winners was:

  • Broker of the Year: Carfinance 2 U Limited
  • Sub Prime F&I Performance of the Year: Billing Finance
  • Business Manager of the Year: Rebecca Mitchell, SG Petch Hyundai (Middlesbrough); highly commended, Zed Salah, Direct Cars Car Supermarket
  • Treating Customers Fairly: Like Car Finance
  • F&I Product Innovation Award: Glass’s Informtion Services, GlassForecast; highly commended, MultiCalc Development/ Codeweavers
  • F&I Lead Generation Award: Insure That
  • Lender of the Year: Oodle Finance; highly commended, Startline Motor Finance
  • Value Added Product Provider of the Year: Autoprotect; highly commended, SMART Insurance
  • Digital F&I Award: Codeweavers, Car Offers
  • Independent Used Car Dealer of the Year (up to 3 sites): Trade Price Cars; highly commended, Hilton Car Supermarket
  • Independent Used Car Dealer of the Year (over 3 sites): The Car People - Manchester, Wakefield, Sheffield & Warrington
  • Franchised Dealer of the Year: JCT600 Limited
  • Hall of Fame: David Johnson, Perrys Motor Sales