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The ultimate separatist
Page 16
Page 17
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Is Renault Trucks finally stepping out from behind its Swedish sibling in the UK? Commercial Motor talks to its British boss, Laurent Farman
Words: Brian Weathertey Images: Tom Cunningham.
IT'S 10AM ON A snowy morning and we've left a somewhat wet trail across the floor of the smart new foyer of Renault Trucks UK's new Orn headquarters in Dunstable.
After years of uncertainty, Renault Trucks UK is profitable and has been for the past eight years. And while it will earn less in 2009 than 2008, it will remain in the black.
Laurent Farman. boss of the French truck-maker's British operation, is clearly delighted with Renault's 2009 5.1% market share, just 0.1% down on 2008, especially in a market that nosedived by 43% overall.
Still, at a time when everyone is battening down the hatches, why spend £5m on a new HQ? Farman says: "We were leasing the building at our old site, and the lease agreement was finishing, so we had to move."
Renault's new residence is a stone's throw from its old Boscombe Road home. However, considering the evercloser tics with its Swedish stablemate, wouldn't it have made more sense to have sent the removal vans up the road to Volvo's HQ in Warwick? Not for Farman. "I don't think it would have been a good move. We wanted to stay in the Dunstable area... we've been here for years, and we find it well located in the UK. We also wanted to avoid staff disruption. We've got a very good team, so when the market's struggling, the last thing you want to deal with are problems of staff retention."
Brand identity
Farman wants Renault to retain its own personality and is an unashamed separatist. 'ltt would have been a bad thing for the market because we want to retain our brand identity." Those two words feature prominently in his vocabulary, especially when describing Renault's position within parent company AB Volvo.
"They've got four truck brands today Volvo, Renault. Mack, and now Nissan Diesel. Their strategy is to find synergies in the back-office functions and industrial operations for purchasing, R&D, finance, HR. IT and parts logistics," and that's pretty much as far as Farman wants it to go for now.
It can't be easy living in the shadow of Volvo. Farman answers: "That's true in the UK, where we're far smaller. But the situation in the UK doesn't reflect the global balance between Renault and Volvo. All the companies in the Volvo Group have their brand identity; we each have our own customer portfolio and we're competing sometimes in the same market, but with clear strategies, different commercial sales strategies, and different distribution networks.
-If you look at what's happened in the truck industry or the car or the airline industry, the groups who have been successful are those that have been able to manage different brands very efficiently. Look at what Volkswagen is doing managing different brands. We need to find synergies of course, but without killing our brands."
Would Volvo AB ever be tempted to subsume everything into one brand... namely Volvo? it won't happen," asserts Farman. "because in that case, one and one won't make two. Volvo would lose probably 90% of our customers and our market share. 1 don't think there's anything to be gained. Look at what happened between MAN and ERE in the UK."
So what's stopping Renault from doing better in Britain? The investment of £9m in our new HQ and our new branch in Coventry are clearly signs that we want to grow" says Farman, but it takes lime. The UK is a very mature market and a -very conservative
one, too. Plus, we've also got some quite good competition!"
All very well, but how much longer before Renault finally hits its stride?
"We should reach 7%-8% market share in the UK market, that's where we need to be if we want to have a sustainable business. That's maybe another three years.Again, it's a slow process.The products are much better than before, the quality of service has also improved, but it still takes time to change the brand perception customers have got from your brand."
Dual franchising
Dual franchising is not for Farman. "It comes back to identity again and not only for Volvo, it's true for DAF or for MAN, or Mercedes-Benz, too. I don't see a dealer being able sell more than one brand.. you can't have two..." he pauses. "Mistresses'?" we suggest. "Exactly," he replies.
Will Renaults UK strategy hit full stride by the time we get to 2013 with Euro-6. or will the new Euro-6 range be the catalyst that provides that final push? Farman is confident: "No, we've got enough in our range today. When Euro-6 comes along. I'd like us to be at that 7%-8%." •
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