New opportunity: Ian Johnson and Joshua Scheffer have filled two new positions at Autopact, heading up sales and fixed operations respectively.

AUTOPACT, one of Australia’s largest automotive dealership groups, has appointed Ian Johnson as national head of sales and Joshua Scheffer as national head of fixed operations, both of which are new roles that were created as part of a restructure of its corporate team.

Mr Johnson’s appointment is effective immediately, with him having served as Autopact’s group operations manager since he joined the company in October last year.

Previously, Mr Johnson was Autopact rival Bayford Group’s chief operating officer from April 2015. Prior to that, he was an operations executive for fellow competitor Automotive Holdings Group (AHG).

According to Autopact, Mr Johnson will be “responsible for developing sales, customer service and dealership facilities … (and) will manage dealership sales performance nationally”.

Meanwhile, Mr Scheffer will commence with Autopact on July 1, having been employed on and off at AHG since September 2007. He was most recently state service manager – a position he held for more than five years.

Joshua Scheffer

Mr Scheffer “will be responsible for the development and execution of Autopact’s national service and parts operations, and customer service”, according to the company.

“Both Ian and Josh have extensive experience across the automotive industry and bring strategic-thought leadership combined with a history of successful hands-on management of day-to day-dealership operations,” Autopact said in a statement.

“Ian and Josh will have oversight across all 27 Autopact dealerships and their objective is to drive excellence and best practice.”

These appointments come less than six months after James Welch was appointed as Autopact’s new chief executive.

Mr Welch joined Autopact in February 2016 and prior to taking the top job served as its group chief financial officer.

Previously, he worked outside of the automotive industry in similar roles, including as CFO for Coates Hire (October 2009 to July 2015) and general manager of finance for Thiess (September 2000 to September 2009).

By Justin Hilliard