Features / If I Knew Then
If I Knew Then: Keith Brock
Wessex Garages has been in business for almost three decades. It operates approved dealership sites for major names in motoring, including Nissan, Kia, Fiat, Hyundai, Renault, Dacia, Alfa Romeo and Abarth.
Starting with one site on the Feeder Road, the company has grown to serve Wales and the South West, turning over £140m in 2015 and employing 318 members of staff. The company has three dealerships in Bristol, one in Gloucester, one in Newport and two in Cardiff, as well as 15 franchises, selling new and approved used cars to private and commercial customers.
In May, it was sold to VT Holdings for an undisclosed sum.
How did you start at Wessex Garages?
The company was started by Steve Patch 29 years ago with one Nissan showroom in Bristol on Feeder Road. I joined 19 years ago as the Operations Director with a brief to grow and develop the group. I was only 31 and had worked previously for the manufacturer and then a relatively short period for a large dealer group focused on turning around a poor performing business. Wessex Garages was already a well-run, established operation so it was harder to improve it further in its current guise, but with expansion of new dealerships in South Wales and the South West we were able to invest further in people, systems and facilities.
Our overall growth strategy has been to make money and then continually reinvest in the business with careful strategic expansion. We have always been prudent and conscious to maintain our reputation as a regional dealer group and are now represented in seven locations with 15 franchises.
Opening our new Nissan brand centre in Cribbs Causeway in December was a serious commitment for the business. It’s a brand new facility, which aside from the building costs, includes £1 million of stock and an additional requirement of about £500,000 of working cashflow. Then you have all the fixtures, fittings and technology required to complete the operation. That’s all been funded from existing capital, so it’s a great example of re-investing into the company from what we’ve earnt. This has allowed us to employ more people from the area too.
We’ve consciously chosen to be associated with winning car brands, which show great growth potential and have supported us in existing projects and expansion, for example Nissan had a 3 per cent share four years ago and now has 6per cent. This prosperous brand alignment has definitely helped us move forward at a much greater pace and remains part of our process for selecting business partners and locations.
If you knew then what you know now, what mistakes might you have avoided?
Difficult to say as you need mistakes to shape you and develop your knowledge. If you don’t make mistakes you are not trying hard enough! What’s important is to learn from those mistakes and recognise them early on and not repeat them further down the line. This industry like many others continues to evolve and you have to be open minded to change in order to expand and improve.
What advice would you have given yourself when starting out?
Follow your instinct; it’s usually right.
If you knew then what you know now, would you still be sitting there?
Absolutely, I love my job and what we have created here at Wessex Garages. I am proud of what the team has established and the company’s heritage and reputation.
What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
Stick to what you know and be the best at it and do not waste energy in trying to diversify. It’s often a distraction.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received so far?
Treat people how you would like to be treated.
What is your business highlight?
I would have to say winning local awards for business performance and in particular for our customer service.
What is your business lowpoint?
The recession of 2008 and working out how to retain people’s jobs. We reacted quickly and took some tough decisions but it worked and we are now stronger for it. Inevitably we did lose staff during this difficult time but it was always after we had considered every other solution. I’m pleased to say we now employ considerably more people than ever before and the company is very secure and stable.
What keeps you awake?
Strangely enough I sleep well but am always up early.
What’s changed from when you started out?
The consumer journey has now moved to digital. We reacted quickly and embraced all of this exciting technology – such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, eBay and YouTube.
Five years ago consumers would visit six showrooms to evaluate their choice now they visit 1.3 showrooms as all their evaluation is online. We have to make sure our website is always up-to-date and is informative and entertaining.
We now have ‘Wessex Vision’ in our service departments using video technology. This has revolutionised the way in which we can communicate with our customers when their car is in for a service or MOT. This enables them to see exactly what work may or may not be required on their car and why, giving them a much more transparent and straightforward experience.
What’s still on your to-do list?
To further develop the online experience and remove the barriers to enable more customers to transact online. Our customers can now book a service via our website. These are all services we want to expand on and improve in any way we can. Ideally in the future we would like to be able to offer our customers the choice to purchase their car online via our website.
What’s next for Wessex?
Firmly establish our new purpose-built Nissan Cribbs Causeway dealership as one of the best dealerships in the country, and the development of our Pennywell Road site as a used car and van supercentre. Then we will see what other opportunities come our way.
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