Colin Christie

COLIN Christie’s rise through the ranks at Subaru Australia has continued with his promotion as director of sales and marketing.

Previously general manager of sales – a position he took up in August 2014 after serving for three years as general manager of aftersales – Mr Christie’s step up as director of the company with responsibility for marketing as well as sales comes with marketing chief Andrew Caie’s relocation to the UK.

Mr Caie, who came to Subaru six years ago after almost a decade with Toyota and Lexus in Australia, is moving to London to take up the newly created role of marketing and customer experience director for Inchcape, which is Subaru Australia’s parent company.

Andrew Caie

Subaru Australia has also now combined the aftersales and customer experience departments, to be led by Deon Bradley as general manager.

Mr Bradley has worked for Subaru since 2008, spending six years as national parts manager – and a similar period before that in a comparable role with affiliate company AutoNexus – before stepping up as national customer experience manager during the 2014 management restructure which saw Mr Christie move from aftersales to sales.

Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior said having Mr Christie in charge of both sales and marketing would bring benefits to the company, its dealer network and, ultimately, customers.

“Having these two critical functions under the one department head will create efficiencies, elevated teamwork and co-operation, and provide better services for our customers and the network,” he said.

“Colin has provided stout leadership and strong performance in his previous role, and I am extremely confident he will continue to thrive with these additional responsibilities.”

As head of sales, Mr Christie was in charge of the “operational and strategic” sales performance of both the vehicle and parts and accessory sides of the business, while as head of aftersales he was responsible for parts and accessories, service and technical, engineering and customer experience.

A qualified accountant, Mr Christie began his career in 1995 with KPMG. The following year he joined Inchcape Australia, the automotive distribution, retail and logistics specialist that has Subaru Australia, Subaru of New Zealand, AutoNexus, Inchcape Automotive Retail and prestige automotive group Trivett in its stable.

Inchcape owns 90 per cent of Subaru Australia, while Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries holds an eight per cent share and Toyota Tsusho Corporation the remaining two per cent.

Mr Christie has served in a variety of roles at Inchcape Australia, including company accountant for Volkswagen, finance manager for Inchcape Retail, business development manager for the Inchcape Group and commercial manager at AutoNexus.

His first Subaru appointment came in 2008 as general manager of finance and operations, a position that included serving as a company director.

Mr Senior also paid tribute to Mr Caie, saying he had “contributed enormously to Subaru’s high-profile multi-platform marketing successes, including the Australiana campaign that has seen our Outback crossover wagon go on to achieve its highest sales since the original launched in 1996”.

“He’s also spearheaded the new brand direction announced last month, while also using our alliances with cycling to attract new buyers to the brand,” Mr Senior said.

“Successful launches orchestrated by Andrew like those of the XV and the Outback last year have been instrumental in driving brand growth, sales and market share. He has led us into the digital age and also up-scaled our commitment to customer relationship management.

“While we’re sad to see him go, it’s a huge opportunity for Andrew with Inchcape in the UK.”

Mr Caie has more than two decades’ experience leading marketing, sales and communication teams across Australia for global brands.

As well as Inchcape, Subaru, Lexus (for whom he worked as head of marketing and aftersales and national sales manager) and Toyota (serving as advertising and marketing operations manager), these include McDonalds (retail marketing manager), DDB Needham (marketing consultant and account manager on McDonalds) and AMP Retail Property (marketing manager).

He has also served on the board of the advertising industry’s peak body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA).

By Terry Martin

Raise a glass: Colin Christie has provided “stout leadership and strong performance” in his role as general manager of sales over almost two years, and now adds responsibility for marketing.