TWO New Zealand dealerships have won significant international and regional awards, with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Auckland named Provenance Dealer of the Year in the British luxury marque’s annual Global Dealer Awards program and Continental Cars Ferrari – also in Auckland – securing the Ferrari Australasian Dealer of the Year award.

Across the Tasman to Australia, Geelong BMW and Mini Garage in Victoria also won a Best Retailer in Aftersales award at a global ‘BMW Excellence in Sales’ event in Munich recently.

While Rolls-Royce’s dealership in Yokohama, Japan, was adjudged best retailer across the Asia-Pacific region last year and London took out the overall Global Dealer of the Year award, Auckland’s win as Provenance DOTY – reflecting outstanding performance in pre-owned vehicle sales and service – was no small feat among an international network of 138 dealerships across more than 50 countries.

Rolls-Royce Auckland is jointly owned by prominent New Zealand retail motor industry executive Ian Gibson and Collins Asset Management, with Mr Gibson serving as managing director of the dealership as well as Auckland City BMW and Mini.

Ruwan Siriwardena is brand manager and Des Parsons is responsible for aftersales at the Newmarket-based dealership, which has previously won major regional awards and a global award for best aftersales incentive.

At nearby Continental Cars, the long-standing Ferrari representative led a regional field of six dealerships in the running for the Italian supercar marque’s 2017 Australasian DOTY award, which is based on selection criteria covering 36 areas including “customer satisfaction, workshop utilisation, proactive customer engagement through marketing activities and quality of aftersales throughout the year”.

The dealership is part of the Sime Darby Motor Group, with managing director Patrick McKenna acknowledging the efforts of the Auckland team – led by general manager/dealer principal Tony Elsmore – and the company’s significant investment in its recently opened new showroom.

Ferrari’s Australasian dealer network also covers Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with another three new outlets coming on-board this year – in the Melbourne CBD, Sydney’s north shore and Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Among individual awards, Continental’s Craig Pryor was named Sales Manager of the Year, his colleague Carmen Gravatt was declared joint Marketing Manager of the Year with Zagame Ferrari’s Elizabeth Tinkler (Melbourne), and Ferrari Adelaide’s Rob Stevens took out the Aftersales Manager of the Year award.

Meanwhile, Geelong BMW and Mini Garage was among a select group of 41 category winners from 3100 dealerships spanning 85 countries in the global ‘Excellence in Sales’ awards program, which recognises top-performing retailers across sales, aftersales, customer service, luxury class and BMW i and BMW i Performance.

Run by dealer principal Paul Gorell and part of the well-known Rex Gorell Family Group of dealerships – which represents 14 brands after starting with a Ford dealership in 1980 – the Geelong business is a seven-times winner of BMW Group Australia’s annual ‘Dealer Trophy Award’ and, according to head of the Australian subsidiary Marc Werner, its global recognition is “proof that Paul and his team truly deliver for both BMW and Mini customers”.

“In particular, strong investment in enhancing both the customer experience and service capacity has demonstrated Geelong BMW’s strong aftersales commitment,” Mr Werner said.

“The team is a leader in the national dealer network, and for them to be recognised on a global scale is a fantastic achievement.”

Mr Gorell described the award as “an unexpected honour” and said it was “testament to our long-standing aftersales team and their commitment to strong, customer-centric process that has really driven us to this award”.

By Terry Martin