AM Awards 2021 winner: Best Used Car Dealer Group, Hendy Group

Hendy Group’s breadth of initiatives and innovations across used car retail secured its win in the Best Used Car Dealer Group category at the AM Awards 2021.

Although led by a used car sales director with 35 years’ experience, the retailer told judges it remained open to change – listening to the advice of suppliers and, crucially, customers – to drive evolution.

From the start of lockdown 2020, Hendy delivered vehicle reservation and finance applications online and has moved fast to expand that offering.

The online process helped mitigate against the impact of COVID-19, with sales ultimately totalling 17,113 against a projected volume of 27,500.

Hendy has two used car buyers, but empowers sales managers to acquire their own stock – closely monitored against group KPIs.

Vehicle preparation and 360-degree interior and exterior imagery is completed within three days and the group targets 41 days in stock, a figure which dropped to 34.5 in Q3 2020.

Hendy’s market data then dictates which of its franchised dealership – or one of three Hendy Car and Van Stores – presents the strongest market for a particular model.

The process delivers a stock turn of 12 at Ford Tunbridge Wells and 8.9 group-wide.

Hendy has also worked hard to mitigate against used car stock shortages.

Its We Want Your Car or Van campaign delivered up to £500 extra for customers’ part-exchange vehicles, free Diamondbrite paint protection, 10 years’ MOT tests and two valets per year for three years among its promotional offers.

Not wanting to stand still, Hendy is now poised to launch a new website providing monthly payment-dictated searches spanning all its new and used cars.

Its marketing portals, meanwhile, will be dynamically tied-in to its retail price-back used car valuation methodology to ensure regular, uniform pricing changes, with forecourt vehicles displaying a ‘live’ QR code.

Alongside these changes, Hendy has embarked on a ‘Sales Managers Duties’ project.

Aiming to present group data in a digestible format, it aims to free-up managers’ time to fulfil key tasks, including the motivation of staff and their development.