Getting its business centres to “look local and sell local” is the focus this year for Toyota and Lexus Fleet Services.

General manager Neil Broad (pictured) told Fleet News at Company Car in Action that one of his key watchwords is ‘localisation’.

He said: “Toyota has 70 business centres and Lexus has 40 and what we don’t want as a brand is those centres looking for national supply arrangements where they are doing long distance delivering to customers they never see.

“We would rather they were energised by local relationships where there is a better opportunity for customer service referral and aftersales retention.

“We’ve introduced a new broker programme which is aimed at Toyota GB doing direct invoice deals with a select few brokers that we trust to work with our terms and work with our customer base, and what we insist on is delivery by the dealer that happens to be local to the customer.

The other area being explored with the business centres is improved penetration within the manufacturer finance contract hire market, called Business Drive.

“Currently we’re being very aggressive on Toyota with Business Drive where we’re offering free maintenance on top of a very aggressive monthly lease rate on selected vehicles within the range - Auris and Avensis in particular. That again is an effort to stimulate our business centres to look local and to sell local.

“We’ve had a consistent Motability programme over the last two years. We set our stall at the start of the year to maintain or improve our rates throughout the year so we’ve made a commitment to Motability and to our dealer network to have that sustained presence. We’re by no means the biggest Motability manufacturer out there but where we have the right products we want to make the most of it.

“The other element we wish to stimulate through the back end of this year is an increased professionalism in LCV sales and marketing, both within the manufacturer and within our dealer network, pending the introduction of an all new Proace range next year and an all new Hilux next year.”