Acorn Truck Sales wins Iveco Essex and London franchise By
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Kevin Swallow ACORN TRUCK SALES has become Iveco Truck and Van's franchise dealer to cover Essex and south-east and east London.
The dealership, whose head office is at Crayford in Kent, will offer sales, service and parts. Darren Brown (right), sales dealer principal, said it's not every day you take on the franchise for a manufacturer that has just won International Truck of the Year 2013 and has a strong line-up of products on offer.
Supporting the Crayford site will be an LCV sales, service and parts dealership in West Thurrock, Essex, as well as two authorised repairers at sister company PCL Eastern in Witham and at Dagenham Motors in Barking.
"We have a superb facility in Crayford and, given our proximity to central London, we see great potential in particular for Iveco's natural gas range of light, medium and heavy trucks, not to mention its hybrid drivelines," Brown said.
He added that the aim is to improve the market share and perception of the Iveco brand. "We need to sell enough volume locally to keep our workshops busy to enable us to re-invest in people and facilities.
"This is a long-term project and we are ready for the challenge," he said. Acorn has invested in a dedicated Iveco Daily van centre at West Thurrock. "As the business expands, we will look for other opportunities including more after-sales sites to support the product," Brown added.
Acorn, which also runs a Hino franchise, and PCL are part of the Harris Group, which employs more than 600 people. It includes Daf Trucks dealer Harris Daf and petroleum transport company Suckling Transport.
Iveco UK network director Marco L,eonardi said: "Acorn Truck Sales is part of a group of companies with almost a century of experience in the transport industry. They have an impressive record and see real potential for Iveco to expand in this strategically important territory."
CHALLENGING WORK Darren Brown has spent 20 years working in the Daf Trucks dealer network. "I left last November to seek a fresh challenge and that challenge began when our appointment commenced on 1 March 2013.
"I started as a sales trainee in 1993 at Morgan Elliott Daf and worked up to sales director. The business was sold in 2010 to [fellow Daf dealer] Heathrow Truck Centre," he said.