London Morgan gives sports car customers the Savile Row treatment

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London Morgan is not your traditional car showroom. The business operates from a series of ex-stables neatly tucked into a cobbled side street among the hustle and bustle of the capital.

Running a dealership in a London mews may suggest footfall would be limited, but sales manager Harry Gibson and dealer principal Anthony Barrell say the contrary is true, because the dealership knows how to attract “the Morgan customer”.

The dealership’s  thesis is that buying a Morgan is a special experience and it wants to make that experience as high-quality and as bespoke for the customer as the vehicle they are buying.

“It is much like going to a suit tailor. We will literally fit the car around the buyer,” said Barrell.

“We had a customer from Egypt who flew in when his car was being built. We picked him up from the airport and took him to see it and he actually signed his engine himself and had a picture taken with the car part-built. When customers come to us, they’re expecting something different in buying a Morgan, but that must also be reflected in the service they’re receiving.”

Gibson said London Morgan’s limited size is an advantage in this regard: “If we grew too fast or had too many staff, then the personalised service we offer could be lost and that’s not what we want – the customer experience is what is important to us.”

Although London Morgan has been trading for only 18 months, it has already won the manufacturer’s dealer of the year award. “That personalised service is exactly the reason why we won,” said Gibson.

Barrell, who has worked for many mainstream manufacturers, said his intention was to drive the business forward, but not in a way typical of the motor trade. He believes treating Morgan customers like mainstream buyers would be the wrong way to go.

Gibson said: “Having Anthony working with me has been amazing and I really have learnt a lot. Having come from a main manufacturer, he has passed on to me ways in which not to do it. Yes, those practices work for mainstream manufacturers, but it wouldn’t work for us and the product we are selling.”

 

Making the most out of a difficult dealership location

London Morgan’s urban location does pose a problem for storage for mass sales. Due to the limited space, the brand can only have three used cars on display at a time, so it is looking to clear out some of its ‘stables’. “We have an offsite facility where we can keep cars and we also have a garage here that we have yet to utilise,” Barrell said.

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The site often has a Morgan parked out front, to attract buyers walking past.

Given its location, a stone’s throw from London’s museum quarter and Hyde Park, the dealership attracts more than its fair share of tourists and every person that crosses the threshold leaves with a postcard. This is more than just an exercise in good PR – the idea is that these postcards are sent to family and friends.

“You can imagine on a sunny day we have the cars outside – people come up wanting their photo taken. The knock-on effect from that is that we are doing really well from international sales,” said Barrell.

But it is not just tourists to whom the word has spread. London Morgan has one customer who travels from Durham, passing four or five other Morgan dealerships en route.

“We don’t operate like a motor trader. We wanted it to become a destination as opposed to just somewhere that people can buy a car,” said Gibson.

Across the cobbled street sits its sister company, Monaco Volkswagen, which forms part of the same group, giving the dealership access to additional resources, such as parts. London Morgan runs the ADP dealer management system, which Gibson said works well, but did not find the most user-friendly system.

Having access to Monaco Volkswagen’s service department and facilities helps London Morgan to tailor its aftermarket process as well as the initial buying journey. When a customer buys a Morgan, they are assigned a personal technician, Frank Rodriguez, who has his own ‘stable’ to work on Morgan vehicles. Frank has all the knowledge and diagnostic equipment required and receives ongoing support and training from Morgan. Customers also have the opportunity to speak to him about the problems they may be experiencing.

“We don’t forget our customers when they’ve bought a car,” said Gibson.

 

Building the London Morgan brand

London Morgan works closely with an event organiser to improve awareness of the dealership and its cars. These include special events for international buyers, providing display cars and offering factory tours or a weekend in a Morgan as raffle prizes.

“We want to sow the seed, and with these little events, just having the car there creates interest from people who perhaps weren’t familiar with Morgan,” said Barrell.

London Morgan also allows designers and artists to use its space for events and exhibitions, which brings new prospective customers to the dealership. The art is available to buy, but visitors are often distracted by the Morgan vehicles in the showroom.

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“It is very easy for motor traders to do an event showcasing the car. But by doing something different, we are then the topic of conversation from an event that’s not anything to do with the motor industry.

“We have even done whiskey tasting events which creates new footfall,” said Barrell.

The company has eight further events planned for 2015.

One of its recent marketing stunts was to drive a Morgan around London, photographing it at a number of the capital’s famous sites.

“What we have noticed with these edgy marketing stunts is that our name is growing, even our Twitter account,  @TheLondonMorgan, has attracted new followers,” said Barrell.

It has also collaborated with London-based designer Squint to create a bespoke London Morgan model.

“Squint will be designing and re-upholstering the interior of a Morgan three-wheeler, which will be a completely one-off model, with more to come if this one is successful,” said Barrell.

London Morgan doesn’t advertise like a traditional dealership either – Barrell targets high-end titles such as Kensington & Chelsea and watch magazines, from which they have had good responses. Traditional automotive magazines, such as Autocar, don’t really work for the brand.

It does occasionally use Auto Trader for used stock.

“We are much more interested in doing interviews or an advertorial as opposed to a picture of a Morgan with ‘come and buy me’ underneath,” said Gibson. Barrell said he wants ‘London Morgan’ to have the same clout that the name Jack Barclay has when buying a Bentley.

“Jack Barclay doesn’t own the Bentley dealership in London anymore, it’s owned by HR Owen, but they never changed the name because people are familiar with it and it built up a fantastic reputation from that name. We are trying to build our name – when you see a used Morgan for sale for instance; we want it to say ‘ex London Morgan’.”

In terms of sales, even though the Morgan is known as more of a summer-runner, sales are pretty consistent all year round. There is more footfall in the summer due to the company having a model on display outside, but “we have buyers in October in preparation for the new plate in March and because they know it will be built and ready to drive the following summer, which is really clever planning,” Barrell added.

In its 18 months of trading, sales figures have shown registrations of about three new Morgans a month, all of which have been through conquest sales – something which mainstream manufacturers constantly want to push. A big part of the 100% conquest sales figure is the fact that the dealership is young, but the service it provides should ensure high retention levels.

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In addition, London Morgan has yet to sell a car on finance. The manufacturer has recently introduced the ability to buy one of its models on finance but “people don’t really tend to take it”, said Gibson.

 

London Morgan's plans for the future

The dealer has big ambitions in terms of growth for this year. To ensure that the personalised touch is not lost, Barrell said it plans to take on an administration person, freeing Gibson to further improve the service.

“We will also take on another technician because as the sales side of things grows so will our servicing and aftersales need,” Barrell said.

Other targets for 2015 consist of 33 new car sales throughout the year. In addition to the new cars sold, London Morgan has a used car department where it sells classic cars for all manufacturers and Volkswagens (as part of Monaco Volkswagen). The group is planning to expand on the used car side of the business this year and aims to move 50 units.

“Morgan is not like many manufacturers – it doesn’t say to its dealers your target next year is 300 cars. Morgan only makes 1,000 cars a year and there is a waiting list, of which our customers understand,” Barrell said.

“There are wait periods and that can sometimes be our fault and sometimes the factory’s, but as long as you’re honest with them [the customers] they respect you for it,” added Gibson.

The ultimate drive is never to stagnate, he said: “We have definitely not explored every aspect of Morgan yet. Even if we don’t necessarily expand on sales, there is high-end valeting, servicing, race car prep etc we can get involved in.”