Multi-marque vehicle supplier Alphabet, which is part of BMW Group, is now the UK’s third-largest fleet funding and management company. At the time the merger was completed in October, the company had around 96,750 vehicles in its portfolio.

Fittingly, it was Next Plc, a customer of both Alphabet and ING individually before the merger, which placed the landmark order that took Alphabet’s portfolio to 100,000 vehicles.

Avelino Zuzarte, Next HR manager – Business Systems and Company Cars, said: ‘It’s always good to see a valued supplier achieve a major milestone for their business. Of course, the key factors in our relationship are the quality of service and value for money we receive.’

ING has been a supplier to Next for a number of years. Alphabet became joint supplier in 2010.

Greg Taylor, commercial director of Alphabet, said: ‘We’ve always seen customer satisfaction and longstanding relationships as the keys to successful growth. At the same time, becoming a major presence in the fleet market allows us to pass on the benefits of scale to our customers, both with existing products and with the exciting new vehicle management and sustainable mobility solutions that we have in the pipeline.’