Roger Zagorski

ATECO Automotive Group has started an active dealer expansion program in response to growing interest in its LDV ‘vehicle range, with plans to add further variants in the future.

It is actively courting dealers in areas where it sees sales potential and has bolstered its dealer network team to seek new outlets and vet applications.

Ateco managing director Roger Zagorski told GoAutoNews Premium that LDV is finding sales success, particularly with fleets.

“We want to pay more attention to the fleet market and to private customers as we ramp up the volumes on the T60 (ute),” he said.

“With the sales growth, we will need – over time – a bigger dealer network. This is pretty exciting times for us.”

Mr Zagorski, who took over 18 months ago from Ric Hull at Ateco following his retirement, said the relatively young brand was reaching out to potential new dealers.

“We have a dealer network team and under (recently appointed Ateco national sales manager) Jeff Barber we want to be more involved in offering more assistance to our dealers in retailing vehicles,” he said.

“The positive at the moment is that we are being approached by dealers who want to take on an LDV franchise.

LDV T60 Pro

“I guess that dealers are getting smart and on the ball to see opportunities. The T60 launch has really ramped that up for us.

“Jeff’s role is to head up the team and assist dealers, including helping with our regional dealers.”

Mr Zagorski said Ateco has 52 LDV dealers around Australia and plans to add another 15 before the end of this year.

“Most of those would be in open areas,” he said. “We still have a lot of areas we would like to have a presence. With the van line-up, the opportunities in rural areas were less but with the addition of the ute, we have a broader rural consideration.

“We are also making investments in our Parramatta LDV dealership by building a new service centre at the back of the showroom.

“This should be finished by the end of June. The second stage will be a new showroom so when completed, we can turn this into an LDV flagship dealer for us.”

Mr Zagorski said LDV, which is a subsidiary of giant Chinese automotive Group SAIC, has a deeper range of utes available. These include cab-chassis and other body styles which are under consideration for Australia.

“There is also a new model coming which is a smaller van or crossover vehicle,” he said.

LDV D90

“We haven’t seen the vehicle in the flesh, just some test models, but that’s a bit further down the track.

“The range covers passenger cars by virtue of the SUV line-up.

“We have just launched the D90 (full-size seven-seat SUV), firstly in modest numbers.

“SAIC is a massive company in terms of production and scale and certainly has access to a varied product range both within and with its relationships with other companies.

“We have no plans for MG (also made by SAIC) to come under the Ateco umbrella – to get that would be up to SAIC.”

Mr Zagorski said any notion of taking on MG was tempered by the brand’s passenger cars operating in a “tough market segment” in Australia and the fact Ateco has “its work cut out with LDV and its future growth”.

Though he said Ateco was actively looking for new opportunities in vehicle distribution – and seeking these from various geographical locations and vehicle segments – it was the mass-market, high-volume sector that was of the most interest.

Ateco, which cut its teeth on potentially high-volume brands such as Kia and Great Wall, was now under-represented in this volume passenger-car portfolio.

“The downfall here is that we look at MG and see them struggling in a shrinking market,” Mr Zagorski said.

“It is a very attractive area for us to be in but a new product would have to be a very compelling case for it to be considered by us.”

One brand that is still on the books at Ateco is Chery. Mr Zagorski said the brand was, however, “dormant” in Australia and he had “little correspondence” with the Chinese factory.

LDV T60Luxe

“Our agreement with them remains but we have some rights of refusal,” he said.

“Chery suffers from a lack of right-hand-drive choices.”

Mr Zagorski has previously said that electric vehicles were being considered by Ateco, though maintains that without government-led support “we can’t see a commercial business case”.

“We are certainly interested in electric vehicles but we have nothing concrete in the short term.”

In other Ateco divisions, Mr Zagorski said its Branded Financial Services arm has grown its portfolio to $180 million from $150 million since he joined 18 months ago.

“The majority of that has come from increased activity in New Zealand,” he said.

“We have been growing the New Zealand book quite rapidly and I see good opportunity for further growth there, while Australia has been stable.”

Ateco operates a Chrysler-Jeep and Fiat-Alfa Romeo business in New Zealand through 16 outlets and Mr Zagorski is equally as optimistic about these expanding as well.

“We certainly have growth aspirations there,” he said.

“We’d like to get sales up to 2500 units this calendar year. Compass is the big news for this year, along with Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio, so both with be good for the network.”

To stitch all these business units and expansion programs together, Ateco has signed up for an online training program provided by LinkedIn’s subsidiary Lynda. LinkedIn bought Lynda in 2015 for about $A2 billion.

“We have signed onto an online educational training program offered through LinkedIn and we are making some good investments there,” Mr Zagorski said.

“It will be rolled out soon to all our staff including New Zealand and our small business unit in South Africa.

“It’s broad training pillared into four specific groups using the same online platform being used by the Sydney University and high schools in Victoria.

“The platform has units – including business and creative – that are delivered online and in bite-size chunks with self-test and videos. We are very excited about this.”

By Neil Dowling