Southampton-based Freeborn Group has appointed Chris Healy (pictured) as its new sales director.

Healy joined Freeborn Citroen as its sales manager in Southampton during 2009 and has gradually taken responsibility for overall sales performance across the group’s four dealerships – the other three being Winchester, Godalming, and Wokingham.

Managing director Andy Jones said: “Healy has worked hard within Freeborn since his arrival and his analytical thinking has helped him get to grips with taking on motorhomes as well as the more familiar cars and vans.

“He has driven the whole group to strong sales, placing us consistently among the top UK Citroen dealerships, integrating our new Mitsubishi franchise into the Winchester business, and improving the performance of our motorhomes division to its best yet. His promotion to the board is well deserved.”

Healy said: “When you have a view of what happens across a complete group and can accept that sales departments are not autonomous and must integrate with everything else to be successful it’s much easier to get a passion for customer service while still remaining competitive as a business.

“I’m fortunate that I’ve developed a very broad view of how a dealership should work and, of course, I love cars and anything automotive. I can’t think of any other job that would be so rewarding or as much fun.”