Richard Frazer (Inset) will be based in Ogilvie Fleet’s Coleshill office and takes on the role of Area manager for the Midlands, having previously worked at HSBC Vehicle Finance and more recently for two years in Renault’s fleet and commercial vehicle department. He replaces Sandra Weston, who with thirty years experience in the fleet industry, retires at the end of February. 

Meanwhile, Ogilvie Fleet’s future Area Managers are learning their trade following their recruitment through the firm’s new graduate initiative.

First to join the company was Craig Gillespie in Ogilvie Fleet’s Stirling office, while Philip Regan has this month joined the company’s Sheffield head office based team and Oliver Rudd and Ben Taylor are based in the organisation’s Coleshill office.

Ogilvie Fleet teamed up with UK-based graduate sales assessment, recruitment and training organisation, Pareto Law to launch the programme. If the initiative with the initial four recruits proves to be a success then Ogilvie Fleet will continue to build its Area manager base through graduate recruitment in the future.

Ogilvie Fleet Sales and Marketing director, Nick Hardy said: 'We are delighted that a person with Richard’s experience and enthusiasm has joined the company. However, it is difficult to recruit high quality Area managers with the drive, desire and determination to succeed.

'It is for that reason that we decided to "grow our own" Area managers as experience suggests that this is the best way of having new, client-facing staff present the image we want.

'The quartet has already embarked on a significant training programme that will turn them into professional consultants, capable of talking to fleet operators about the totality of the service we can provide, rather than simply looking for the next order. Ogilvie Fleet is all about building long-term relationships with clients and meeting their needs in a way that we believe no other leasing company can.'

Eighteen months ago the Ogilvie Fleet board devised a strategic growth plan that focused on operating a 10,000-strong company car and van fleet within three years. That target has already been achieved and now the business is aspiring to a fleet size of around 12,000 vehicles through organic growth over the next two to four years.