MERCEDES-BENZ Australia Pacific is the latest brand to name its top-performing dealers of 2020, with the 10 winners being inducted to and forming the Circle of Excellence for the next 12 months.

Rather than a category base system, the brand has simply named its top 10 performing dealers across the board in relation to their sales targets and customer service with two rural dealerships making the cut.

3 Point Motors (Vic), Mercedes-Benz Sunshine Coast (Qld), Mercedes-Benz Berwick (Vic), Mercedes-Benz Adelaide (SA), Mercedes-Benz North Shore (NSW), Mercedes-Benz Brisbane (Qld), Mercedes-Benz Brighton (Vic) and Mercedes-Benz Melbourne (Vic) were all named as metropolitan winners while the two rural winners were Mercedes-Benz Coffs Coast (NSW) and Mercedes-Benz Bunbury (WA).

Announced at a virtual event hosted by incoming Mercedes-Benz Australia-Pacific CEO Florian Seidler, Mercedes-Benz Vans managing director Diane Tarr, Mercedes-Benz financial services managing director and CEO Juergen Rochert and Mercedes-Benz New Zealand general manager Lance Bennett, the winners have all been invited to the 2021 Product Forum next month.

In announcing the winners, Mr Seidler acknowledged the difficult year that was 2020 and the challenging operating conditions inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We take this opportunity to express our appreciation to you for the hard work, initiative and especially the adaptability you have demonstrated over these past 12 months,” he said.

Beyond the top-performing dealers, Sean Choi of Mercedes-Benz Sydney (NSW) and Lachlan Brown of Mercedes-Benz Coffs Coast (NSW) were named as the New Vehicle Sales Consultants of the Year while the Daniel Bey of Mercedes-Benz Berwick (Vic) won the AMG Brand Manager award for the second year running.

The Mercedes-Benz Vans awards were run in a more typical fashion with Ms Tarr naming Mercedes-Benz Melbourne (Vic) as the Metropolitan Retailer of the Year and Mercedes-Benz Sunshine Coast (Qld) as the rural winner.

In addition to its top-10 performance, 3 Point Motors also snagged the Financial Retailer of the Year for the cars division while Mercedes-Benz Macgregor (Qld) took top honours among the van retailers.

Across the pond in New Zealand, Mr Bennett announced Mercedes-Benz Wellington and Mercedes-Benz North Shore as the Kiwi members of the Circle of Excellence with the latter also being named the country’s Vans Retailer of the Year.

Mercedes-Benz Cars sold 29,455 new cars in Australia last year, marking a 7.1 per cent dip in sales compared to 2019 however things are already looking up this year with 5258 units sold across January and February, 16 per cent up on the same period last year (4531).

By comparison, Mercedes-Benz Vans finished 2020 1.2 per cent up on 2019 with 6778 sales, however things have not gone so well so far this year ending February with a 39.1 per cent sales hit (540 YTD vs 887).

By Callum Hunter