News

Fiat wants a bigger slice of the fleet van market, and newly appointed UK CV director Gerry Clarke says he knows exactly how to get it. "Up until now we have been excellent at getting the one-man-band business," says Clarke, who moves to the UK from his previous post in Turin. "But this sector only accounts for 20% of UK van sales. Now we need to expand our presence in the fleet sector." Clarke says the company is already making an impact in the Royal Mail fleet. Last year it took delivery of  350 Doblo vans, and last week a repeat order at an increased level was announced. "It tells us that this decision is based on the van's performance, in particular driver feedback and reliability," he says.

Clarke is well aware that Fiat needs to do a lot more than just talk about winning fleet business, and actually needs to make some serious changes in order to win it. He explains that he has just taken on four new staff, whose responsibility it is to contact the fleets with between 25 and 100 vans. "And very soon we will take on someone else to target the 100-plus fleets," he adds. Another key to the company's growth in the fleet sector is product development - something he believes Fiat is ahead of the game on. It has spent €2bn over the past 15 months, introducing new Doblo, new Scudo and new Ducato. A Grande Punto van will be launched in the summer, and there are more new products due in 2008.

"With new Ducato we have moved up to four tonnes," says Clarke. "Which opens  up an all-new market to us. We took orders for 150 of these 4-tonne Ducato's in March alone." He tells MT that Fiat is well aware that the new sector it has entered "is not best serviced by a car dealer network". He goes on to explain that this is being tackled with the opening of more LCV-specific dealers. Currently 25 of its dedicated van dealers offer 24-hour servicing, but Clarke anticipates this figure to increase to between 30 and 35 by the end of the year. "We are number two behind Mercedes-Benz for offering extended servicing," he says.

Fiat is increasingly teaming-up with truck dealerships, which is an effective way of boosting its number of dedicated van dealers. "Our preferred route is Iveco," says Clarke, "and it helps that the products are generally complimentary." However, in September Imperial Commercials will open a purpose-built dealership in Frome, Somerset, which will sell Fiat vans and Daf trucks. The company also has a number of joint dealerships with LDV, which Clarke says are proving successful. "LDV's product is more in-line with ours, but the vans are sufficiently different for there not to be a clash," he says. "We may not be able to sell as many vans as Citroën in the UK, but we are better positioned to service professional customers."

Gerry Clarke, who last month replaced Kevin Henderson as commercial vehicles director at Fiat Auto (UK), has been with Fiat since 1986. Since then he has held a number of high level positions within the company, most recently as sales director across the 65 countries which import Fiats. Clarke, who is fluent in Italian, is in the process of moving from Turin back to the UK.