The dealership, run by the Carworks Group that is owned by Ric De Ruiter and Carl Morandi, sold 45 Renaults in April to become the nation’s top-selling Renault dealer.
It is the first time that a rural dealership has topped the Renault sales charts, but not the first time the Ballarat franchise has scored national accolades. It won national dealer of the year in 2016 – the first time for a regional Renault dealership – and has been a provincial dealer award winner in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018, along with top scores as a Renault used-car outlet from 2015 to 2018.
Dealer principal and co-owner Carl Morandi told GoAutoNews Premium that regional sales have been strong in comparison to metropolitan sales.
He said inquiries had jumped since the Anzac weekend, indicating “light at the end of the tunnel and some positive signs for dealers who can get through to the other side of these tough times.”
Mr Morandi said Ballarat Renault performed very well in April for a combination of reasons.
“We prospected very hard through our database in April and there were a lot of commercial vehicles coming through towards the end of the financial year,” he said.
“In a tough market we try to bring a lot of those customers forward. Many of those have been loyal customers since we took on the Renault brand in January 2014.
“We also had a lot of referral business so it led to some really good numbers.
“It is our best month ever for Renault selling purely new cars, though we did one month last year with 52 vehicles but some were demos.”
He said that about 70 per cent of the April sales were for Renault’s commercial vehicles, certainly the brand’s strength in regional areas.
“Part of the sales success was also because Renault introduced an automatic version of the Trafic van five months ago, which is the first time for an auto since about 2015,” he said.
“There was also an upgrade to the bigger Master van that led to more sales. The smaller Kangoo is generally a good seller, especially as a delivery vehicle with shops and bakeries, but some businesses cancelled their Kangoo orders in March and April because of the effects of COVID-19 on trade.”
Mr Morandi said the dealership has a young sales team with most being with the business for five or six years.
“I think that’s important because customers prefer the continuity of seeing the same face when they come to the dealership,” he said.
Ballarat Renault has been a stand alone dealership for Renault for many years but Carworks had an opportunity to take on the Jeep franchise in March 2019.
“Jeep is a good fit for us for volume and service and also complements Renault,” Mr Morando said.
“We have a 6-7 per cent market share with Renault in Ballarat and adding Jeep just helped make the carparc bigger and more diverse for us.
“We have always been very strong in used cars and that’s ongoing because it’s our backbone. But new vehicle sales and support is good to have for the business.”
Mr Morandi said the economy around Ballarat was improving in the past few weeks “but it was pretty bad in March and April”.
“Many customers self isolated because of the virus and that led to a drop in sales and service work,” he said.
“A lot of Jeep owners have Grand Cherokees and their age group can be 65-85 years of age so they are in the high-risk category for the virus.
“They usually have the Jeep to tow a caravan for holidays but with the virus, they stayed at home which impacted on our service department. Most of the Renault owners also stayed at home so we didn’t see them either.
“We’re not alone here. A lot of businesses have really been affected and some have closed. We survived because we did things like dropping prices on the used cars and really put a lot of effort into contacting prospective and existing customers.”
By Neil Dowling
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