How were Hyundai UK’s fleet sales last year?

It was another record year for us. The key measure for me is the volume via the dealer network, that was up over 1,000 units year-on-year, but it’s great to see every single sector is now contributing to the overall number.

What are your aspirations for this year?

Overall volumes will only grow by 2,000 to 2,500 registrations, but the key element is the rental volume will decrease by a couple of thousand units. The volume we need to find will come from true fleet and Motability. We’re not walking away from rental, we just need to make sure we have that optimal volume to keep control on residual values.

How will you support this?

It’s enhancing our offering in every single sector. We have a very robust aftersales charter which gives confidence to deal with our brand, we’ve driven down SMR costs and it’s great to see the investment in what we’re trying to do. I brought three new staff into the department last year and we’re looking to take more people on this year.

We will be re-launching the Hyundai Business Centre programme in April where we’ll be giving more support for prospecting, CRM and database management and also raising standards. It’s key for me that the money we spend is utilised on dealers who are proactive and can deliver that excellent level of service.

We’re also working with RV setters so they set the best values for certain cars. On i40 we’ve seen an RV change anywhere from 7-10% uplift from old to new. That’s a game changer for us – whereas in the past, especially in the public sector, we wouldn’t compete because the annual payment would be too far out; now we’ve got a strong RV and a very good product it gives us virtually a completely new audience to talk to.