Alison Jones has been appointed head of operations at Audi UK.Alison Jones, 2011 head of operations, Audi UK

Jones succeeds the interim head of operations, Julie Evetts, and brings a wealth of experience from her roles at Volkswagen Group and elsewhere in the automotive sector to Audi.

Most recently, she masterminded an overhaul of the Volkswagen Group Customer Service Centre, where she was head of contact strategy for Audi, Volkswagen, VW Commercial Vehicles, Skoda and Seat.

Robin Woolcock, Volkswagen Group UK’s managing director, said “Alison‘s breadth of knowledge across all areas of the business, particularly her impressive record in customer sevices, combined with her commercial, leadership and change management skills stands her in good stead for her latest role as head of operations for Audi UK.

Jones will be responsible for new and used car sales, agreeing production volumes as well as network and franchise responsibility for the UK.

She will report in to the new director of Audi UK, who is still to be appointed following the resignation of Jeremy Hicks earlier this month.

Jones first started working for the Volkswagen Group in 1988, before moving to Exel Logistics Fleet Management and later to Unicam. She returned to Volkswagen Group in 1998 and has undertaken roles encompassing operations, finance, aftersales, and customer service.

From 2007 to 2010, Jones was head of aftersales and customer service for Volkswagen UK.

“I have worked at Volkswagen Group for many years and so have always been involved with Audi. It’s great to now be a direct member of the brand, particularly at such an exciting time.

"We have a multitude of great products coming through, a challenging market place and an absolute focus on our customers and the service we provide. Audi has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and I look forward to building on that success” said Jones.

Audi UK delivered almost 100,000 new cars last year, and is currently the lead brand in the premium sector sales rankings with just under 72,000 deliveries so far this year and a market share of 6.0 per cent.