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He’s back: Jeff Barber returns to Ateco after an absence of almost seven years, taking on the role of national sales manager for the Ram and LDV brands.

EXPERIENCED motor industry executive Jeff Barber has returned to independent distributor Ateco Automotive as national sales manager for LDV and Ram.

Replacing Pat Burke, Mr Barber is responsible for overseeing the sales programs for both brands and managing Ateco’s national sales team, which includes recently appointed Queensland regional manager John Carmichael.

In announcing the appointments, Ateco Group managing director Roger Zagorski said the company had moved to strengthen its support for dealers as the network expands for both brands on the back of increasing sales last year when LDV climbed 67 per cent to 2580 units, while Ram climbed 36 per cent to 398.

Similar growth is anticipated for 2018.

“Jeff’s unique breadth of experience makes him ideal for this new role,” Mr Zagorski said.

“It means that he understands what dealers need to grow their businesses and he knows what support to provide his regional managers, so they are able to deliver the full range of support services.

“Crucially, he has the management skills to work with all the different areas within Ateco to ensure that all our teams are pulling together in the same direction, delivering stronger dealers who are selling more vehicles with high levels of customer satisfaction.”

Mr Barber has more than three decades’ experience working with motor vehicle distributors and retailers in Australia.

He spent the past four years with the Walkinshaw Group, working primarily with subsidiary Fusion Automotive, which is the distributor for Indian brand Tata Motors, and is clearly no stranger to the Ram brand given Walkinshaw’s joint venture with Ateco – American Special Vehicles – that converts the Ram 2500/3500 full-size pick-up truck to right-hand drive.

The Ram pick-ups are converted on a purpose-built production line at Walkinshaw’s factory in Melbourne, while Ateco lends its expertise in areas such as importation, distribution, network, sales and marketing.

LDV is part of China’s SAIC Motor Corporation, which looks to Ateco for the burgeoning LCV/SUV brand while a separate factory operation handles MG.

John Carmichael

At Fusion, Mr Barber was most recently national sales and dealer development manager – a role he moved into after helping establish a dealer network for Tata in Australia while at the same time serving as Tata’s regional manager for New South Wales and Queensland.

His previous experience includes almost four years as general manager and director of Sime Darby SsangYong (2008-2012) and seven years as national dealer development manager for Peugeot Automobiles Australia (2001-2008).

He was also involved in new business development at Sime, focusing particularly on Asia-Pacific distribution deals with automotive manufacturers in China and India.

Mr Barber left Sime Darby to take up a new position as general manager/dealer principal at the Dominelli Group in Sydney, shortly before the SsangYong franchise switched to Ateco and Citroen moved from Ateco to join sister brand Peugeot at Sime.

Both Peugeot and Citroen are now managed by Inchcape Australasia, a company Mr Barber also worked for during the early-to-mid-1990s, across various finance and marketing roles.

Mr Barber worked for Ateco in a couple of stints from the mid-1990s to early 2000s, serving in positions such as group logistics manager, national sales and marketing manager for Suzuki and NSW regional manager for Kia.

He also spent a year as business development manager for R L Polk Australia, playing an instrumental role in setting up the VFACTS industry reporting service for new-vehicle registrations.

Meanwhile, Mr Carmichael was promoted to Queensland regional sales manager late last year after almost three years as Ateco’s fleet business development manager and around eight months as national vehicle preparation manager.

He came to Ateco in 2014 after almost two-and-a-half years with Chinese vehicle importer WMC Group, which at one point was responsible for LDV light-commercial vehicles – among other brands.

At WMC, Mr Carmichael was national product support manager and, earlier, national service support officer.

Prior to that, he worked for Goodyear Autocare as manager/head mechanic.

Mr Zagorski said Mr Carmichael, who replaces Darren Mabarrack in the role, had “more than proven himself in the fleet area” and was “capable of meeting the exacting demands of fleet customers, working with dealers to ensure that fleets get the support they need and demonstrating a real enthusiasm for getting out there and getting the job done”.

“Working with the regional managers in other states, I have no doubt that John will make a significant contribution to the team and means we now have an ideal blend of youth and experience across the country that will be a core component in driving Ateco sales forward in 2018 and successive years,” he said.

By Terry Martin

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