Service tests
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• Having enough service capacity to meet the rising demands of hauliers is expected to be a major challenge for many franchised dealers over the next few years.
Gerry Smith, general manager of Midlands Mercedes-Benz dealership Gerard Mann, says: "We're at maximum capacity now because our sales have gone through the roof."
He plans to deal with the problem by building a new site in Shrewsbury, and taking over the company's car workshops in Birmingham. "We lost the Mercedes car franchise there as a remit of network reorganisation," Smith explains.
"Those measures should be sufficient to meet our needs, and fortunately we don't seem to have a problem with technician recruitment," he says. "One reason is that we reward workshop staff financially if they persuade technicians working elsewhere to come and work for us instead."
With outlets in Coventry and Wolverhampton too, the company sold about 2,300 CVs in 2002, including 325 used models. That compares with 1,950 new and 320 used in 2001.
Smith adds: "Axor is doing well for us. It's got us into fleets that we haven't succeeded with before; we've supplied 45 to ANC, for example.
"But *though volumes are up, we've seen a decline in profit margins of around 15%. That's a lot of cash, given the number of vehicles we sell."