Iveco Irish sales up 10%
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by Cohn Sowman • Truck Dealers International (TDI), part of the Harris Group, has increased Iveco's share of the Southern Irish market by more than 10% to 16% in its first four months of trading. It has sold more than 420 vehicles since the deal started in March.
Six main dealers out of an expected 10 have been signed up including three Jennings Truck Centres. Another eight service points will be appointed.
Having invested £4m in the three new centres Jennings has already sold more than 60 vehicles from its main Tullamore site in county Offaly. In Ireland dealers keep high vehicle stocks to enable rapid delivery. TDI expects to hold 600 vehicles at a time.
At the official opening of the Tullamore site, Jennings managing director Pat Jennings gave a commitment to make Iveco the market leader, a sentiment echoed by Dermot Thunder, TDI's chief executive. Iveco's move to the Harris Group has given operators more confidence in the service backup, says Thunder. TDI has not finalised all the vehicle specifications but all models in the light Daily range will be equipped with heavier springs and power steering. Municipal vehicles from Iveco's Seddon Atkinson subsidiary will also be imported. The current product line-up from vans to 38-tonners is similar to that in the UK but TDI expects to sell a higher percentage of high-powered tractive units.
Eight-wheeler market leader Hino suffers from a lack of Euro-1 engines, restricting the products to the heavy end of the range. Iveco does not expect to make immediate inroads into Hino's dominant position in the eightlegger market, but it expects the higher specification cab to be attractive to those on long-haul work.
Chairman of Iveco North Europe Alan Fox said: "The job is to look after customers after they have bought the truck, that is where the battle is won and lost."